As it turned out the afternoon justified my anxiety whilst ultimately offering further reassurance that we are indeed the real deal as promotion contenders.
After the trip to London Bridge and a quick beer it was back on the train for the 5 minute hop to South Bermondsey and the march up the metal-fenced walkway to the away end......for some reason it always makes me feel I am about to start a lengthy sentence in a maximum security prison.
Mind you this was still better than last season when South Bermondsey was closed , necessitating a walk from a tube station through the type of estate where Michael Caine lived in Harry Brown. At £23 the ticket from the smiling lady in the kiosk by the turnstiles felt like an epic bargain after the Portman Road £35 highway robbery.
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| Michael Kightly's shot was deflected in for the equaliser |
There was a healthy and noisy Claret following in the upper tier to welcome the team out in the white and claret away kit. The bad news was no Marney, with Edgar starting instead,, but with Arfield fit again and Jones back 'the team' was almost all present and correct.
A positive start saw us force a corner down the right ,only for Jones and Trippier to make a complete hash of a short corner routine . That set the tone for an opening quarter low on any sort of quality of play from either side, admittedly not helped by the swirling wind. We looked strangely sluggish and, whilst the Lions were hardly roaring, it was no great surprise when we went behind to a close range volley after 23 minutes.
"Top the league, your 'avin a laarf" sang the loveable faux-dockers off to our left and it was difficult to argue that we were hardly justifying our billing as we continued to struggle to find any form of cohesion or threat.
When we did get forward it seemed to be mainly with the purpose of drawing attention to a ball-magnet in Danny Shittu's forehead. For all his virtues as an old-fashioned stopper though Shittu is not someone you associate with a goal threat when outside the penalty box but when he struck a low shot into the defensive crowd after 38 minutes we had a glorious view from the far end of the evil deflection it took off a Claret foot . Heaton no chance...two nil and bubble well and truly pricked. We were definitely not 'avin a laarf.
What happened next was as if the Ginger Mourinho had suddenly pressed the button marked "overdrive". First a cross from the right caused confusion for big Vokes to head home at the back stick, following which we absolutely tore into Millwall with all the tempo and purpose that had previously been lacking.
With the Claret crowd baying the ball flew back and forwards across their box and at one point a Shittu slip gave Danny Ings a shooting chance which was frustratingly blocked. Somehow Millwall hung on and retired to their changing room at half time a bit like a groggy boxer who has survived a late barrage of punches.
At half time I felt the bubble reinflating on the back of that last few minutes and sure enough we came out looking like a team that meant business with our usual pressing and energy reinstated.
We didn't have long to wait as 10 minutes in the reenergised Michael Kightly drifted inside from the left and curled a low shot towards the far post. It looked like it was going in anyway to me but maybe not as the goal was given to the Millwall defender who got a foot on it.
How we laarfed.
For the remainder of the game we continued to push forward ,with Millwall generally restricted to the odd breakaway from their midget forward line which the imperious Shackell and the dependable Duff easily coped with.
We were now back to our normal zip and threat and , if there is a criticism, it is that we didn't work the keeper more for all our pressure. Arfield was again looking strong. skilful and composed and , following one superb flowing move which cut Millwall open, it was his shot against the right hand post that came closest to winning it for us.
With fully 20 minutes to go the tannoy had invited any of us who wished to avoid being kept in after the game to "leave now" but we looked so likely to score that no one took up this generous invitation.
The only Claret to depart early turned out to be Kightly, subbed by Brian Stock in what seemed an oddly conservative change at a time when I thought Junior Stanislas might have been worth a run.
And so it ended....both with relief at having come back from 2 down, but also with a touch of disappointment that we had started so poorly and that we had not managed to take the comeback all the way on a day when QPR and Leicester both won.
Overall though, having got that first half hour out of our system we then came back in a way which silenced the Millwall mockers and showed the character and skill you might expect from a team at the Top of the League (yep, that's us still ....Up The Clarets !).