Millwall v AFC Bournemouth - 4 To Go!

billythekid

UTC Legend
AFCB Could Secure Play-Off Place

Going into our away game at Carrow Road, Norwich City had already secured promotion from the other results earlier in the day.

They started off on fire and opened the scoring after 5 minutes, with a nice move involving Teemu Pukki and EMI Buendia poking the ball into the net. They lost a player not that long after for a foul on Ben Pearson and the Norwich City player was shown a red card. The 10 men of Norwich City retained their lead until half-time, with the Cherries earlier having a goal disallowed for offside. Jefferson Lerma on a yellow card was substituted at half-time for our striker Sam Surridge. Not long after being on the pitch he made it 1-1. Two more AFCB goals were to follow with the goal of the night from Arnaut Danjuma and Lloyd Kelly hitting a very low shot into the far corner to make it 1-3 and 3 points for the Cherries and six wins in a row for Jonathan Woodgate and his players.

In their next game they will be aiming for seven wins in a row, last achieved back in March/April of 2012-13 season in League 1 when AFCB won 8 in a row.

AFCB next play on Wednesday night at 6 pm and if we win and Reading lose, it will ensure a play-off place. Our team make the trip to London and the Den, the home of Millwall, this will be the last of the run of three games in a row away from home. The Lions had a good run of three wins in a row recently, including two at home. That run was broken by defeat to promotion seeking Swansea City at the Den 0-3. Previous to this Swansea City after their defeat at Dean Court lost their next three games and that put a large dent in their automatic promotion ambitions.

The other teams in the top six who have visited the Den have all come away with one point after drawing there. Brentford were the first in September and it finished 1-1, this was followed by Barnsley in October which was also a 1-1 draw. This year towards the end of January, Watford were the visitors, that game ended goalless. Norwich City visited the Den a week later on the 2nd February, again the game ended 0-0. The two teams just outside the top six, Reading and Cardiff City, both drew 1-1 there last November as well. So against all these sides Millwall have held their own bar against the Swans recently. Millwall at home have drawn 10 of their games, the highest in the Championship to date. Their home record, W 6, D 10, L 5. Away they have W 8, D 7, L 6. Millwall on their visit to Brentford in their latest game, held the promotion hopefuls to a 0-0 draw.

Our last league visit to play Millwall away, was in the Championship winning season of 2014-15. AFCB came back with all 3 points, beating Millwall 0-2, our goals came in a ten minute spell, first goal came after Charlie Daniels was brought down in the penalty area on 32 minutes and Yann Kermorgant stepped up and put it away. The second came from Harry Arter in the 42nd minute to celebrate his 25th birthday and his fifth league goal on the bounce.

The Cherries in their 35 visits to London to play the Lions, have only drawn twice against Millwall, that was back in the 1954-55 and 1926-27 seasons.

Cherries league record away against Millwall W 10, D 2, L 23. In all competitions, the Cherries have W 27, D 13, L 38.

Millwall Team News
Matt Smith, Ben Thompson and Kenneth Zohore season could be over. Also Ryan Leonard and Shaun Hutchinson missed the Brentford game.

Millwall Player To Watch
Jed Wallace who has 9 goals and 5 assists this season, strong all round player.

AFCB Team News
No more injury news, so hopefully can keep the same team and squad.

AFCB Player To Watch
Arnaut Danjuma, on fire and has scored 7 goals in his last 8 league games with 5 assists.
 
Millwall fans have mixed feelings about the result of this game.

As mentioned in the preview they have a good record at home this season of drawing with the top teams.

This is one of those banana skin games, but hopefully our form has come at the right time.

Game is on Sky Red Button.
 
Depending on how tonight's results pan out... Could be a huge game for us tomorrow... Millwall will be tough opposition and probably the one game out of our remaining fixtures that I have doubts about...

Fingers crossed Norwich can steamroller Watford tonight...
 
..always a tough place to go and you never what you are going to get when we play them...hopefully the quality that has had us on this winning streak will be enough?

Glad it is on the red button so at least some of us can watch it...think SJL is right a tricky and awkward match that we could slip up in...they will probaly line up with two attacking wingers so Smith & Kelly will need to be on their mettle..
 
Swansea haven't exactly looked free flowing recently yet they thrashed this lot......can't see them causing us any trouble other than the odd hoof into our box.
 
We are virtually in the Play-Offs and more than virtually out of the Automatics ...so for the next 4 games, although we shouldn't go on the beach completely, we should avoid injuries...and conserve some energy for the playoffs..a difficult balance really because the momentum/form is in place Now...hope we don't slide off the peak and get picked off by Swansea or Brentford who have had their dodgy runs , but have the points and might be just be in neutral gear ready to move up a notch for us... It doesn't really matter what position we finish in the pack because we have to beat two of them in the end...and all will be up for it !
 
The 3-0 score line flattered Swansea, although it is fair to say that Millwall didn’t respond well once they went behind.

I think Millwall miss their home crowd more than most, so if we can get our noses in front we should do OK.
 
A league-high 17th draw of the season last round marked two winless games without a goal and all but mathematically ended Millwall’s faint play-off aspirations. Nonetheless, they’re still aiming to secure a top-eight place for the third-straight season, as boss Gary Rowett searches for his first ever managerial victory over this opposition (D1, L3). Often falling short against the better sides, Millwall are winless versus the top six this season (D7, L3).
Ten of those 17 draws came at home, although none were in the last five (W3, D2). Subsequently, they’ve accrued less points at home than away (28 vs 31) and with eight of their last ten home league games seeing just one or neither side score - and 16 matches producing under 2.5 goals - it’s hardly surprising that only two games here have seen a comeback win (of any kind), although both were achieved by Millwall.
Bournemouth have a seven-point cushion inside the play-offs thanks to a six-match winning streak in league action bookended by a win at table-toppers Norwich. They can confirm a play-off place by claiming a seventh straight league victory for the first time since April 2013, combined with a Reading defeat versus Luton.
It’s also five road trips unbeaten for Jonathan Woodgate’s side (W4, D1), with two of those wins arriving despite conceding first. With six of their eight away league victories this term producing over 2.5 match goals, including five with both teams scoring, goals could be forthcoming despite Millwall’s propensity for low scoring games here (1.81 per game on average).
Players to watch: Millwall’s Jed Wallace scored the opening goal in two of their last four home league victories, while In-form Bournemouth winger Arnaut Groeneveld has eight goals in his last ten Championship appearances, two of which came in away triumphs.
Hot stat: Millwall have won seven of the last eight competitive home H2Hs, of which five wins came without conceding.
 
win tonight pretty much cements the playoffs. reading will be 10 behind if they lose or 9 if they draw at Luton - with 9 to play for.

come on boys!
 
Updated team news from both official sites.

AFCB

Apart from Lewis Cook, Shane Long is our only doubt.

Millwall

With just four matches remaining in the season, Gary Rowett will be without a number of his first-team squad for this midweek encounter. Matt Smith, Shaun Hutchinson, Ben Thompson and Ryan Leonard are already on the sidelines, and they may be joined by Mason Bennett, Murray Wallace and Shane Ferguson as Jonathan Woodgate's side visit SE16.
 
My wife bought a Sphinx cat recently....well it's a kitten I suppose....i wasn't that keen on it tbf as it's probably one of the ugly things I've ever seen and I've worked out that I'll have to shoe 10 horses to pay for it!!...........but it's watched the last 6 games with me so now obviously it's the most precious thing in my life....:p.......so if you're all wondering where this good form has come from then wonder no more...it's all thanks to my wife's magical CAT!
 

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