February Review

February produced a month of ups and downs for Millwall. Nothing new there then. The Lions faced a tough and lengthly set of fixtures in February due to their FA Cup and Championship commitments. Our first test came against West Ham United at Upton Park, a fixture which everyone had looked out for when they were released during the summer. Following their relegation from the Premier League last season, the Hammers still had plenty of experienced Premier League and International players amongst their ranks.

The game was shown live on Sky Sports on Saturday 4th February with a 12:30pm kick-off. The home side were reduced to 10 men inside the opening 10 minutes as captain Kevin Nolan was given a straight red card following a two-footed lunge on Jack Smith. Millwall failed to capitalise on the man advantage and West Ham went in at half-time a goal up. Carlton Cole headed in from close range with seconds left of the first period. In the second half, Liam Trotter put Millwall level just after the hour mark with a sublime finish from the edge of the area. This would give us momentum to push on for that winning goal with a man advantage, right?

Wrong. A long punt forward from the West Ham defence was punched away by David Forde who was clattered following a challenge from Julien Faubert. Everyone in the ground thought the ref would blow for a free-kick, but no. Winston Reid smashed the ball into an empty net from outside the area. 2-1 to the referee you could say. Millwall pushed right til the end but couldn't grab the equaliser. 1 defeat after 1 game in February then.

Three days later, Millwall travelled to St Mary's to take on fellow Championship opposition Southampton in an FA Cup 4th round replay. We took a shock lead through Liam Trotter within the first 20 minutes, then Adam Lallana replied for the home side after 35 minutes. In the second half, Rickie Lambert put Southampton 2-1 up with 15 minutes left. Around 5 minutes later, former Saints man Dany N'Guessan made it 2-2 with a header following a well-worked move from James Henry. Then in the 90th minute, sub Liam Feeney's curling shot from 18-yards found the far corner to put Millwall 3-2 up and through to round five.

Surely that would give us the confidence going into our home game with Derby County on Saturday February 11th. Nope, the game finished goalless. There were three shots on target in the entire game. Derby's Craig Bryson missed an open goal from a few yards out. That summed up the game. We need to be winning games like this, especially at home. Brighton away was next up just a few days later on a Tuesday night. One of our best performances of the season, however we drew 2-2. Andy Keogh scored his first Millwall goal after the 20 minute mark. In the second half, Sam Vokes levelled for Brighton before Liam Feeney's tap in restored our lead. In the 88th minute, a Kazenga Lua-Lua free-kick was parried in by Forde and the game finished 2-2. It was a bitterly dissapointing result given how well we played.

The games were coming thick and fast. Saturday, Tuesday every week. Premier League strugglers Bolton were up next at the Den in the FA Cup 5th round. The visitors ran out 2-0 winners but there were some positives. We certainly should've had a goal to our name. We played some nice stuff but to no avail. Ryo Miyaichi and David N'Gog with the goals for Bolton as they progressed to the quarter-finals. Another home game, another Tuesday game. Middlesbrough at home were next as we approached the end of the month. We lost 3-1. Marvin Emnes with two and Curtis Main with the other as Middlesbrough earnt all three points. Darius Henderson scored for us before the break to make it 1-2, but we were punished for not taking our chances. We camped in Boro's half for the whole second period but we still couldn't score.

Last up, the result of the month. A 3-1 away win against Burnley. Keogh gave us an early lead inside 15 minutes smashing home following some poor defending. Then, the goal of the season. Scott Barron's free-kick was headed away, however it fell to Josh Wright some 30-yards from goal. He hit it first time and the ball sailed straight past Lee Grant in the Burnley goal. Some way to score your first Millwall goal. Harry Kane bagged his first league goal for the club in the second half to make it 3-0. Jay Rodriguez replied from the penalty spot in injury time as Millwall earned three valuable points.

Five points from 15 isn't great, but hopefully with some key games coming up in March we can start to turn the corner at the business end of the season. That's it. I'll be back at the end of March for the next monthly review.