If you have a good news packed Friday 13th, does the ill fortune associated with that most auspicious of dates default to the next day? It seems so to Hull City, who endured a calamitous afternoon at The Den.
A day earlier Tiger Nationals were buoyed by the signing of Slovene Robert Koren, who impressively captained his country at the World Cup in the summer, and an announcement by chairman and owner Russell Bartlett that a newly struck deal with the Investec bank should allow for some financial stability as debts are restructured on more favourable terms for the club.
With three 2010/2011 points already in the bank, the Tigers travelled away in moderately expectant mood, looking to end a wretched run of away form that had left us without an away win since March 2009. Giving us hope was the belief that we had an excellent defence, amongst the best in the division, after all they looked so comfortable against Swansea that they could have exchanged football boots for slippers in the second half. But…
Just as the Royal Navy’s sense of invulnerability at the start of the Falkland’s War was riven by some Argentinean Air Force fired Exocet missiles, our belief in our defence was ruthlessly sunk by Millwall.
The Tigers taking on Lions at The Den were: Duke; Dawson, Gardner, Zayatte, Solano; Kilbane, Ashbee, Cairney, Atkinson, Bostock; Garcia. The same 4-5-1 (4-1-4-1 at a push) starting eleven that strolled to victory a week earlier. New signing Koren, his shirt still warm from the heat bonding of 22 on the back, took a seat on the bench.
Millwall have changed their primary colour somewhat, what was previously royal blue is now navy blue, meaning our black stockings were deemed indistinguishable from the home side’s deep blue hose. We looked a bit of a mess in amber/black shirts, black shorts and the white away socks, but this was appropriate for a messy performance (quite inferior to a Messi performance, you understand).
Neither side impressed during the opening minutes, which were largely formless, Bostock flashed a shot wide though it was the hosts who appeared to have the most intent early on. A week ago we observed that Nolberto Solano really isn’t a full back, and that Will Atkinson is quite weak, lose an arm wrestle to Monty Burns type weak, and whereas we got away with playing them with each other on opening day, we most certainly would not on this day.
Miwwaww, as the South Bermondsey club are colloquially known, are an admirably efficient, enthusiastic, well drilled side, still on a high following promotion and a largely unexpected opening day win at Bristol City. They’re not brilliant, though we made them look it today, but they’ll have little trouble adapting to the Championship following elevation from League One. Their primary tactic is to get the ball wide to either of the excellent wingers James Henry and Danny Schofield, and pepper our box with driven crosses, and it worked a treat while exposing our central defence’s fragility when under aerial bombardment.
Thirteen minutes in, ‘Wall had the lead. A Henry corner kick was lofted in from their left, and at the back post, alleged summer transfer target Steve Morison wrestled his way past Anthony Gardner to nod down and in. Too easy really. Gardner mimed a jersey tug to the unimpressed referee, and you could argue that Morison was quite spirited in his efforts to bypass our defender. However, that this division is a bit more rough and tumble than the top tier is a good thing in my view, and a man as experienced as our number 6 should have been more alert and more to the point, a bit stronger.
Our keeper too, can claim a bit of culpability I feel, he’s too easily beaten by balls placed at knee height, while his tallness means he ‘fills the goal’ it also means he’s not too adept at getting down quickly enough when needed. There’s a saying in American Football circles that everyone loves the back up quarterback until he has to play, and that analogy fits with ‘keepers in the round ball game too. Some were clamouring for Duke to replace Bo Myhill when the now departed netman had a few confidence sapping games last year, but overall Myhill is the far better keeper, and there’s a nagging feeling that we’ll really miss him and realise just what we had in the American born, faux Welsh stopper. Those who moaned at Bo’s distribution when kicking from the ground would have found no solace in Duke’s into-touch slicing.
Still, the story of this game is defensive aberration, rather than a found wanting goalkeeper. He may be one to blow his own trumpet, but I’m sure that Nolberto Solano will tell you he’s better further up the flanks than being placed at right back, where his lack of defensive nous and at 35, lack of pace, can be ruthlessly taken advantage of. So it proved, moving boss Pearson to put him out of his misery, replacing the Peruvian ten minutes before half time with more conventional full back Paul McShane. By that point though, we were two goals down.
The ball was dropped behind our back four, causing defensive disarray, Gardner and Kilbane’s attempts to stop a right sided Henry cross amounted to nought, and at the near post Kevin Lisbie took advantage of a dithering Zayatte, who appeared to be pondering whether to have dreads or cornrows on his head rather than connecting it with the ball, Lisbie stooped to nod his new side 2-0 up.
I firmly believe Gardner and Zayatte are very good defenders, Gardner in spite of his frailty, Zayatte in spite of occasional crazy moments when his self confidence exceeds his physical limitations, but it’s fair to say that the pair of them stunk the place out today, like Pepe le Pew going down on Beth Ditto after running a marathon.
The two of them were responsible for a goal conceded apiece in the first half, and they’d do it again in the second. They weren’t the only ones not on form though, Ashbee, totemic the week before, offered little protection to the defence, Cairney, Kilbane and Atkinson were pretty much anonymous as Millwall bossed midfield, leaving attacking midfielder Bostock outnumbered and lone front man Garcia woefully isolated. The Aussie came in for a bit of stick on the concourses during the interval, but the problem wasn’t whoever was up front (not to mention that he created our best scoring chance of the half from a free kick), even if the 4-5-1 formation strikes some as unadventurous.
Nonetheless, Garcia left the field at half time and didn’t return, replaced by promising youngster Cullen. Going for broke, Pearson used up all the substitutions, also introducing new boy Koren for the second half and mercifully removing the ineffective Atkinson. Admirable intentions, throwing on attack minded players to at least try to get something from the game (even if a first win away since mastodons roamed the earth was out of the question) but those most responsible for the current scoreline remained and would repeat their mistakes to turn moderate embarrassment to full blown humiliation.
Anthony Gardner had a point when he remonstrated with the linesman who gave a corner fives minutes into the half when it was clearly a goal kick. The ref was unshaking in his support for his quite wrong colleague and the Tiger Nation precognitively groaned knowing exactly what was coming. Henry swung in another excellent cross that evaded all wearing white socks, crucially by Gardner who jumped alongside Morison but wasn’t watching the ball, Morison was and his header arced over the heads of Dawson, Ashbee and Duke on the line and fell underneath the crossbar and in. We’re not getting anything from this now besides a tip for those playing the Texaco Championship Fantasy League to put James Henry in your team for the assist points.
He earned some more just before the hour mark, instantly centring a ball out wide right into the path of Trotter, who seemed to wear Zayatte as a cape as he calmly directed the ball past a static and statuesque Duke. 4-0. Four-Nil, and in truth that could have easily been doubled, so good was Millwall’s crosses and so poor was our rearguard’s handling of them.
You don’t want me to carry one dissecting this game, you want me to note some positives don’t you? Ok, the spicy chicken burgers were very good, albeit overpriced, but this is that there London after all.
What’s that? Positives about City? Oh. Well, Robert Koren looks to be a genuinely high quality signing, we’d barely done anything to make ‘Wall keeper Forde earn his appearance/clean sheet bonus until his arrival, and we looked much sharper with him out wide. He went on a part mazy, part stumbling run through Millwall’s defence before stabbing a shot goalward that forced Forde to block with his legs, he then alertly retrieved the rebound near the goal line and flicked a cross/shot that worried Forde enough for him to palm it over the bar. The lively Cullen tried to find him with a cross but it was too near the keeper and Koren shot not too far over after an interchange with Bostock.
In his 45 minute cameo, Koren was comfortably the best player on the pitch, even considering Henry’s afternoon of pin point crossing. That alone keeps the hope flames alive. Plus Cullen is fast developing into a tidy first team player though many Tiger Nationals would welcome an addition to our shallow striker corps. before the transfer window is closed, especially as we’re trying to move both Folan and Cousin on.
The defence? Clearly Pearson has some things to put right, a point he himself made post match, but we do have the basis of a good defence, despite the Freddy Kreuger-esque ‘mares of Zayatte, Gardner and Solano today. This is a division where anybody can beat anybody, we took a 4-0 pasting at Southampton the year we were promoted from the Championship, so it’s too early to assess just yet. The same sorts who said we’d piss this division after the Swansea game are the same as those who’ll now be touting us for another drop after Millwall. There are 44 games to go, and no more on a Saturday 14ths, unless we reach the play offs, in which you create your own luck. There, you’re feeling better already, aren’t you?
Ps. A final word about Millwall’s fans, who revel in their reputation as hard cases and insecurely sing ‘no one likes us, we don’t care’. At full time they sang along to Status Quo, hoho, the heems. No one cares, you don’t like it.
