10 men Rovers pick up a hard fought point at the New Den.
Saturday, 21st April 2014 at The Den, Millwall
Skybet League Championship
Millwall 0 Doncaster Rovers 0
Referee – Mr Frederick Graham
Attendance – 12,026 (562 visitors)
Rovers made one change to their starting line-up, Theo Robinson replacing Billy Sharp, who dropped to the bench.
Rovers got the game underway defending the away end. Goalmouth incidents were few and not particularly exciting in the opening quarter hour of the game, with midfield play being the norm.
In the 17th minute the home team won a corner followed two minutes later with successive corners, all of which came to nothing.
The 25th minute saw Stevens, for the Rovers, get forward down the left before chipping a cross to the far post but a defender beat Brown to the ball and cleared.
Past the half hour and Edwards blazed high and wide from distance on the Millwall right.
A free kick from the Millwall right in the 35th minute brought a header from Maierhofer at close range but Johnstone saved.
The 42nd minute brought a corner to the home team but McDonald, at the far post, had his header pushed out for another corner.
Two minutes later and Meite went in high on Maierhofer and was shown a red card by the referee.
From the resultant free kick Millwall were awarded a corner that Furman headed out to Beevers on the 18yard line but shot over the bar.
In added time a free kick to Rovers halfway in the home half brought a good shout for a penalty but the referee didn’t want to know and awarded a corner kick, which was headed wide at the near post.
Half Time – Millwall 0 Doncaster Rovers 0
Millwall made a change at the start of the second half bringing on Steve Morison for Woolford.
Millwall set the ball rolling and went straight on to the attack and penning the Rovers back in their penalty area.
Rovers had moved Tamas to the centre of defence and Coppinger to right back, with Robinson dropping back to midfield.
A couple of corners to Millwall were well defended, the second of which plainly went out off a Millwall player.
Maierhofer then had a go from 20yards on the Millwall left, with Johnstne pushing it out for a corner.
In the 56th minute, Bailey, for millwall, hit a rasper from 15yards to the right of goal that was going for the top corner when Johnstone got to it and tipped over.
Then, a corner to the home team was headed over at the far post at close range by Bailey and Martin from the home left fired high and wide from 25yards.
In the 64th minute, a cross by Cotterill from the Rovers left to the far post was fumbled by Forde, who then appeared to bring down Brown in his efforts to retrieve the ball but again the referee wasn’t interested.
Minutes later and a good build-up on the Rovers left gave Cotterill the chance of a shot from the left angle of the penalty area but he put wide of the near post.
In the 70th minute, Baileyon the right edge of the Rovers penalty area lifted a shot high and wide of the target.
Then Johnstone punched a ball away in a melee to Martin, who shot high over the bar.
Millwall piled the pressure on winning several corners and bringing Johnstone into action constantly.
But the Rovers defence withstood everything thrown at them and were greatly helped by Johnstone’s heroics in goal.
At the end it was the Rovers pressing at the other end and then taking the ball to the corner flag.
A well earned point for the Rovers after going down to ten men.
Teams – Millwall – David Forde; Carlos Edwards, Alan Dunne ©, Mark Beevers, Scott Malone: Scott McDonald, Nicky Bailey, Shaun Williams, Lee Martin; Stefan Maierhofer, Martyn Woolford
Subs used – Steve Morison for Woolford 46 mins; Simeon Jackson for Maierhofer 68 mins;
Subs not used – Paul Robinson, Jermaine Easter, Ryan Fredericks, Jimmy Abdou, Stephen Bywater gk
Caution – Bailey 87 mins;
ROVERS – Sam Johnstone; Gabriel Tamas, Paul Quinn, Abdoulaye Meite, Enda Stevens; James Coppinger, Paul Keegan, Dean Furman, David Cotterill; Chris Brown, Theo Robinson
Subs used – Jamie McCombe for Robinson 89 mins;
Subs not used – Mark Duffy, Billy Sharp, Luke McCulloch, Marc De Val, Harry Middleton, Jon Maxted gk
Caution – Cotterill 58 mins;
Sent off – Meite 44 mins;