A much-changed Leeds side never quite got into it’s stride, and with Millwall’s goalkeeper in fine form, two goals from Femi Azeez were enough to take the South-East London mob through to the next round of the FA Cup.
Much of the talk after this game was about Daniel Farke’s decision to make 10 changes to the starting line-up, but six of them have been regular starters in the league, plus Guilavogui who has made numerous appearances off the bench. Darlow had a go in goal as in all this season’s cup ties and there was a glimpse of the lesser-spotted Schmidt.
The only real surprise was the inclusion of 17 year-old Sam Chambers, and he had an excellent game, operating mostly on the right while Gnonto moved to a more central role. It’s one thing to make so many changes in a tie against lower ranked opponents, but a bit of a liberty when the opposition are in the same division, even if they’re in the bottom half of the table.
Quite often on such occasions we get a rather disjointed performance, as we start out with a side that looks reasonable on paper, but consists of players who don’t normally play together. So it was during the first 20 minutes or so of this encounter, even though Leeds were enjoying more of the possession.
Young Chambers was involved in the first two decent chances we created, first when a corner was cleared out to him on the edge of the box. He chested the ball down, but unfortunately couldn’t keep his shot down, and it flew over the bar. Then Gnonto produced an acrobatic volley from his cross, but Roberts was well positioned to make the first of a series of fine saves.
Then on the half-hour the visitors took the lead, against the run of play. Gnonto and Schmidt lost possession between them as they tried to get through a crowd of Millwall players on the right inside our own half. Azeez took the ball to the edge of the area, and his shot took a big deflection off Guilavogui as he slightly turned his back on it, to give Darlow no chance.
Looking at the replay I notice that Guilavogui instinctively moved across to block the shot, but Struijk was already in line with it. If the big man hadn’t done that, Struijk would have had a second or two longer to adjust his body to make a proper block. And shortly afterwards we really should have gone two behind.
Ampadu was eased off the ball as he tried to being it out of defence, and Azeez’s shot came crashing down off the bar. Cundle reacted much faster than our static defence to get to the rebound, but amazingly sent his header wide from close range, in a proverbial ‘it was easier to score’ moment.
We came close to an equaliser just before half time, after a long ball out to the right found Schmidt, and Chambers collected his first time ball inside. The 17 year-old went past two defenders to get his shot in, but put it too close to Roberts, and the keeper was able to make another fine stop.
At that stage we were still well in the game, and another chance came just after the break. Gnonto brought the ball in from the right, and as he slightly stumbled after being challenged the ball ran to Ramazani. The Belgian shot through a defender’s legs, but Robers got down to make a great save, even though he might have seen the shot late. But on 55 minutes Millwall established a two goal lead after breaking downfield.
Guilavogui was dispossessed just inside their half, and the ball was played to that man Azeez, whose shot from the edge of the area beat Darlow at his near post. I’m not sure if it took a slight deflection or he was expecting Ampadu to block it, but it certainly won’t have boosted his chances of displacing Meslier as our first-choice number one.
Every classic poor defeat should include a missed penalty, and we were to spurn such an opportunity to get back into the tie, after Gnonto got a push in the back from Cundle as he tried to work his way into a position to shoot. With Piroe off the field Struijk stepped up to take it, and inevitably that man Roberts got down to keep his weak effort out of the net.
Struijk’s technique stakes everything on trying to send the keeper the wrong way with his stuttering run-up, but if that doesn't work, it’s always an easy save. There is no power in the shot, and he never places it right in the corner. We must have had better options for a penalty taker from those players on the field at the time. I one have selected any one of Gnonto, Rothwell, Ramazani or Joseph ahead of Struijk.
That prompted Farke to make the first of his subsitutions in search of a way back into the match, as Firpo, Tanaka and Solomon all came on. Presumably the plan had been to have some of the big guns on the bench in case things were going pear-shaped, but they didn’t seem to make much difference, and if anything the performance fizzled out even more.
Cundle’s rather mixed performance continued as he fouled Rothwell to give away a free kick just on the ‘D’ outside the penalty area, and for a change we came close to scoring from it. Rothwell curled the ball round the wall towards the corner of the net, but inevitably that man Roberts got down to turn the ball round the post.
But that was as close as we came in the later stages, even when Piroe had come on for Gnonto. The final change saw Ampadu given a rest as young Debayo came on into the centre of the defence. Maybe by then Farke had decided that the tie had already gone, and ten minutes later the referee put us all out of our misery with the final whistle.
When it was all over our esteemed leader told the BBC "Congratulations to Millwall, but we're disappointed because we wanted to go through to the next round. To rotate during this busy period is necessary, but 10 changes can't be positive or beneficial for the fluidity of your football. We took this decision because we played Wednesday night."
I’ve read a few moans from some of the 33,000 Leeds fans who were at this game and felt a bit short-changed, but they must have known that the Cup wasn’t a priority and that changes were likely. Personally, I like the variety of seeing a few different players, even though they didn’t cover themselves in glory on the day.
We need to get back to winning ways on Tuesday night, but if we do achieve our main aim of being promoted back to the Premier League this game will be well and truly forgotten.