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Match Report: Wells untimely exit exposes familiar weaknesses at Millwall


Olé

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Those old enough may remember Mark Gavin really struggled when he first came to us, he got loads of stick until one day, away to Birmingham, he was like a born again footballer, tearing the Birmingham defence to shreds. 
 

All of a sudden the crowd got behind him and he was a different player. This is what I always hope will happen to CoD, I keep giving him extra chances because of injuries but one day maybe we’ll see that Norwich away goal form on a regular basis. Maybe.

 

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4 hours ago, Olé said:

For most of his 20 months at Bristol City, Nahki Wells has been a bit part figure, not even making the starting line ups for the early part of this season. But after running the channels like a man possessed in the win at QPR away and then in a draw with division favourites Fulham on Saturday, his last minute withdrawal at Millwall seemed to badly disrupt City’s forward play, exposing a depressing lack of cutting edge for all their possession at the Den.

City were expected to build on a five match unbeaten run, and yet despite weathering a purposeful Lions opening, and then controlling the game led by Joe Williams in midfield, including an utterly dominant 15 minutes after half time, the visitors offered little actual attacking threat - and then threw away everything in a single moment as a sloppy Tyreeq Bakinson was caught out in midfield, and Benik Afobe raced clear to win the decisive penalty.

Despite reinforcements from the bench, City faded badly and never looked like levelling - a depressing reminder that for all the talk of transformation since last season, lacking both Wells and Semenyo’s pace, Massengo’s bite, and then suffering Baker’s exit in just the first half - once again the side is a hostage to player fitness, exposing a painful lack of pace and quality in attack, even after O’Dowda’s typically forgettable second half wing return.

With Nigel Pearson isolating and led by Curtis Fleming on the touchline, City switched to three at the back after the pre-game loss of Wells - and the disruption was obvious as Millwall dominated the opening exchanges at a sparsely filled and unseasonally cold New Den, Scott Malone, Matt Smith and George Evans efforts all forcing the visitors to defend in numbers, before City finally settled  and wrested control of the game after 10 minutes.

First Jay DaSilva capitalised on a poor throw in and swept the ball upfield for Bakinson to get clear down the left, cutting inside and racing into the box, but robbed of possession, the half clearance reached Matty James outside the area who unleashed a rising shot just over the angle of post and bar. On the quarter hour Bakinson’s looped ball forward and a defensive slip let Andi Weimann turn and race clear, but the keeper closed him down quickly.

By now City were starting to craft well worked football in the middle third, and good interplay led to James lifting another through ball which Bakinson stole onto inside the box only to miscontrol and be flagged for offside. Then at the midway point of the half Bakinson threaded DaSilva down the left and clear to the byline, his cross eluding several City options and finding fellow wingback George Tanner beyond the far post to nod down tamely wide.

Just before the half hour the visitors were rocked by the sadly familiar sight of Baker going down off the ball and requiring attention before being withdrawn, Cam Pring on in his place. Unsurprisingly Millwall capitalised with the first big chance of the game as Evans headed down behind City’s backline and Afobe skipped clear inside the box with just the keeper to beat, Bentley doing brilliantly to beat away the shot at close range in front of away fans.

Much of City’s best football was coming through DaSilva down the left and before the break two crosses in quick succession threatened an opening - first on the break his ball into the middle was bundled clear of the ineffectual Chris Martin, and then from the resulting corner, recycling the ball at the second attempt, the wing back centred and found Weimann whose flashing header went just wide of the far post as the visitors again failed to capitalise.

On the stroke of half time it should have been the hosts who went in front, rallying with a series of chances before the break, they worked the same proven combination as Evans again found Afobe behind City’s defence, the one time Ashton Gate striker heading down into the bottom corner at close range, Bentley tipping past the post. It was a stark reminder of the value of pace and purpose up front, compared to City’s largely anonymous front two.

As it happens Curtis Fleming’s men took the game to Millwall from the restart, attacking towards their travelling fans. Williams and James were dominating midfield, with time to pick their passes and find dangerous channel balls. But lacking both pace and cutting edge - Martin in particular turning in the box to find an angle only to lose out -  it didn’t take long for O’Dowda to be thrown on at the expense of DaSilva, as City tried to turn the screw.

It was one-sided football against a poor looking Millwall side and despite a succession of corners and getting both O’Dowda and Tanner racing clear down both flanks, City were utterly bereft of quality in the final third. Both wide men were guilty of squandering crosses - cut out or, in the case of O’Dowda, overhit with Weimann well placed to finish -  but in truth the failures owed much also to the absence of Wells and with it any real threat in the middle.

So the sucker punch came as no surprise after the hour mark. Bakinson, an increasingly uncertain figure alongside impressive central midfield colleagues, hesitated on the ball in the centre circle and was robbed of possession, a quick through ball highlighting the advantage of pace in attack as Afobe raced clear on goal and drew a foul from Rob Atkinson, substitute Jed Wallace smashing the resultant penalty into the top corner with unerring confidence.

And that was it. City had shown little quality in attack despite controlling the game from the tenth to the sixtieth minute, and by now their tiring midfielders had run out of options and let the game slip away from them, although there was briefly time for Bakinson to slash wide after Martin and Weimann combined in space on City’s right. Withdrawing the tiring Williams for the wrong sort of Kasey Palmer cameo compounded the complete surrender.

City, far from finishing the game strongly in search of an equaliser, were aiming quick balls forward at O’Dowda and Palmer, which sounds exactly as horrific as it actually was, the total lack of composure or fluidity that marked our earlier purpose, saving us only from the predictable sight of Chris Martin lumbering about in attack being outrun by anything that moved. This was a throwback to last season. An awful performance against a poor side.

 

Bentley 7 Two important saves from Afobe with the best chances of the game

Baker 5 Another early exit for his record of early exits - was it the knock from Saturday?

Kalas 7 Plays like he takes it all personally and worked hard throughout

Atkinson 6 Unfortunate with the penalty but some good marauding runs forward

Tanner 5 Tireless performance but can see the step up in quality needed going forward

DaSilva 6 One of our more effective performers, we were much worse after he went off

Williams 7 Our most purposeful of midfielders and drove the team forward until he ran out of steam

James 6 There is a good partnership with Williams to be had but they need players to aim for

Bakinson 4 Influential early on but became increasingly ponderous and careless - lacking confidence

Weimann 5 Given no service and played so far off Martin maybe maybe he thought Wells was playing

Martin 4 Please god not a season of this - a few knock downs and otherwise looked like he was queuing for petrol

 

Pring 5 Had one header over and at fault at least once when Millwall got in behind us

O’Dowda 4 Ran down the wing a few times, overhit a cross, fell over, then disappeared, standard stuff

Palmer 4 Tried one cute through ball straight to an opponent, rarely controlled any passes to him

‘An awful performance against a poor side.’ Spot on. Some of our supporters are kidding themselves a bit at the supposed scale of the NP revival. We’ve been very lucky in recent weeks. And boring as hell to watch.

The last 20 minutes were truly embarrassing; the first 70 an exercise in tedium. 
And good use of the word ‘lumber’. 

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Not sure anyone has mentioned it before but the penalty decision looked very soft watching on TV.  Atkinson met Afobe with a bump of shoulders but got Benik in full stride so went flying so looked to a ref from way back to be more than that?

When Jed Wallace did similar late in the game out wide it appeared to be with much more force and sent our man (COD?) flying but no foul.  Frustrating decisions, the penalty came at just the wrong time for us as we were well on top at that time after a turgid first half.

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2 minutes ago, Scare_Man said:

Not sure anyone has mentioned it before but the penalty decision looked very soft watching on TV.  Atkinson met Afobe with a bump of shoulders but got Benik in full stride so went flying so looked to a ref from way back to be more than that?

When Jed Wallace did similar late in the game out wide it appeared to be with much more force and sent our man (COD?) flying but no foul.  Frustrating decisions, the penalty came at just the wrong time for us as we were well on top at that time after a turgid first half.

It was a def pen the fact Atkinson didn't complain said it all.

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25 minutes ago, ralphindevon said:

Those old enough may remember Mark Gavin really struggled when he first came to us, he got loads of stick until one day, away to Birmingham, he was like a born again footballer, tearing the Birmingham defence to shreds. 
 

All of a sudden the crowd got behind him and he was a different player. This is what I always hope will happen to CoD, I keep giving him extra chances because of injuries but one day maybe we’ll see that Norwich away goal form on a regular basis. Maybe.

 

That game you mention was 14 months after Gavin signed for us. O’Dowda has been here over 5 years.
 

How many more chances does this guy get? 

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1 hour ago, bris red said:

9 times out of 10 he is poor for us though, if last night was an isolated incident then it would be fair enough and we would all be happy to give him a free pass but it isn’t. It’s been going on for years ever since he has joined us, consistently ineffective.  As i said on here last night he isn’t good enough for where we want to be as club and needs shipping out at the earliest opportunity.

And yet keeps getting picked by every manager. Maybe you are wrong and they all aren’t 

Edited by And Its Smith
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3 minutes ago, Selred said:

Or maybe because he's on a very healthy contract and we haven't got any other wingers in the squad to compete with him? 

I suspect his contract renewal was more to do with Ashton’s self-driven business strategy ie he did want to lose SL a few £million early on in his relationship, than any real desire to retain an appreciating asset. Personally, I could see no benefit in the renewal, apart from maybe a quick sale in the first transfer window which would have clawed back some money. 

We have to assume the managers/CEO’s of the other 91 league clubs didn’t value CoD as much as Ashton did. Nice to see though that we kept CoD but gave a far superior Taylor away to Oxford. Must have been a way of Ashton thanking Oxford for CoD being such good business. 

I think Nige must be somewhat bewildered that he has a player on his books that is a past international and, no doubt, in the top 10 highest paid players in the Club. Logic would be that he must be worthy of a place in the first team or, at the very least, around the squad.

Like Ralph, I’ve always hoped for a re-set. The thought, ‘that’ Norwich wonder goal is the real CoD and we’ve just got a stand-in for 99% of the time. It ain’t happening though. Even if it does, belatedly in his contract,  one suspects he’ll do a Fam and shaft us. No, fed up now and his presence on the pitch just serves to remind me of the very dark days of the Ashton/Johnson era. 

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1 hour ago, Scare_Man said:

the penalty came at just the wrong time for us as we were well on top at that time after a turgid first half.

Interesting to know when would be a good time to concede a penalty? 

Also, at no point last night were we 'well on top'. There only ever looked like one team scoring and it wasn't us.

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4 minutes ago, Super said:

Isn't the rule now if he is making an attempt to get the ball it's a yellow? 

As he was 'behind' I didn't think he had any chance of playing the ball and thought the ref would go red. I think as the pen was quite 'soft' and Atkinson didn't contest the call the ref took the easy option.

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Disappointing performance and result.

Never understand why there is a seeming lack of urgency (or any creativity/cutting edge) when we are a goal behind and time is running out.

Atkinson, Tanner, Kalas, James, Pring and Williams put in some decent effort (and had to carry those that went missing), and we had an error-free performance from Bentley.  This at least gives me hope for better days ahead.

 

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9 hours ago, wendyredredrobin said:

Question - How is it that Millwall can afford Afobe and we can't? He did very well for us before his injury and seemed very happy in Bristol.

 

He used to play there, that helps- same with Saville, went back to former club. If returning to a club they used to play for then they might be keen to accept lower wages etc.

Our issue isn't so much this season, more that if we gambled and didn't go up then we'd be stuffed.

Lower running costs probably contribute to more FFP headroom. Lower income too but more headroom meant that clubs such as them, Luton to an extent, Barnsley had they chosen to do so, Coventry had they chosen to do so- well they did to an extent- and Preston, could take a bit of a chance this season.

Edited by Mr Popodopolous
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57 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

He used to play there, that helps- same with Saville, went back to former club. If returning to a club they used to play for then they might be keen to accept lower wages etc.

Our issue isn't so much this season, more that if we gambled and didn't go up then we'd be stuffed.

Lower running costs probably contribute to more FFP headroom. Lower income too but more headroom meant that clubs such as them, Luton to an extent, Barnsley had they chosen to do so, Coventry had they chosen to do so- well they did to an extent- and Preston, could take a bit of a chance this season.

Benik is on loan

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22 hours ago, Selred said:

Disagree. We were on top until the pen. Absolutely.

Yes, this. We came out second half massively improved for 10-15 mins, Millwall couldn’t get out of their half and then the penalty killed our momentum.

Of course there is never a good time to concede a penalty or a goal - although you could argue that if you are 5-0 up in the 90th minute you wouldn’t really be too bothered!

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18 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Benik is on loan

This is true, but still the headroom thing, lower cost base...still I wonder if we could've signed a loanee or two- real shame how it panned out for Benik here, started so well...gave us a whole new dimension and the team still with room to grow with DaSilva to return, but then in a 3-4 week period him, Nagy and Kalas got injured and combined with the DaSilva thing we were suddenly missing around 1/3 of a team, all of them starters or 3 at bare minimum with 1 as 1st reserve.

Possible too of course that with Stoke needing to downsize and Afobe learning that his ex club were in for them that they got him a bit cheaper as most of what you want can be better than nothing- he's from London too isn't he, Afobe.

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