Daniel Farke has claimed that his team were excellent last night, but many others disagree, after we failed to get past an organised defence yet again, and Millwall were able to hang on to all three points.

Our manager told the BBC "I'm not annoyed at all with our performance – I thought we were excellent. This is a difficult place to go and I think we've created more situations in and around their box than the last four away teams here in total. We were more or less playing in their half, but there will always be one or two set-piece situations”.

"Football can sometimes be the most unfair sport in the world. If it's tennis, basketball or handball and you're dominating, the better side wins – but in football one goal is often decisive. It's also about efficiency to use your chances or to make sure there are not little mistakes and in these terms they were better than us today. We have to accept it and congratulations to Neil and his team."

He’s right in the sense that we had over 70% of the possession, but in these days when statistics are flung at us from all directions, the new saying is that there is only that matters, and that is the scoreline. Once Millwall had scored from one of their two decent attacks they were able to sit on their lead, while we failed to break them down.

And today many fans on social media haven’t given the performance the same glowing review as our manager. Some say these frustrating away defeats happen too often, and while this might be the first of this season, it’s following the pattern of last season’s defeats at Stoke, Sunderland and Preston, etc, to say nothing of the run-in, when we couldn’t get through what modern football calls a ‘low block’.

There was one change to the starting line-up, as Bogle returned from suspension and Byram went back to the bench. And from the off we were into our patient passing build-up, possibly in the hope of boring the notorious home crowd into silence. Gnonto was looking lively on the left, first shooting straight at the keeper, then creating chances for Aaronson and Piroe to shoot straight at the keeper.

We also had a rare opportunity from a corner, but Rodon’s flick-on was just too high for Tanaka beyond the far post, and the Japanese international could only send the ball over the bar. It was a bit confusing to have a Tanaka and a Tanganga on the pitch at the same time, and unfortunately it was the Millwall man who was to take advantage by scoring against the run of play in the 40th minute.

It all came via the areal presence of their 6 foot 6 central defender Jake Cooper, who is always a threat at set pieces. Daniel Farke was presumably watching when he scored the goal that beat Burnley in the televised game on Sunday, because the big man was double-marked whenever he came forward.

It worked the first time, but now he got his head to a cross-field free kick and nodded it into the space between two of our defenders, where Tanganga pounced on the ball to shoot Millwall in front from outside the area. Nothing else happened of note before the break, and the game continued in the same vein in the second half.

Except that Millwall were even quicker to get players behind the ball now that they had a lead to protect, still well organised and working hard for each other. I started to wonder if we can’t break down such teams because our approach play is so slow, so they have plenty of time to get into shape while we pass the ball around, looking for an opening that is no longer there.

On one occasion we got a free kick for offside on the edge of our area, and I thought ‘quick! Get straight downfield while we’ve got a chance to get in behind them.’ But no, it was pass, pass, pass, and they were all waiting for us by the time we approached their penalty area. We did manage another shot straight at Jensen, this time from James, before we had a goal ruled out on the hour mark.

Piroe moved forward into the six yard box in the hope that Bogle’s cross would come straight through to him. But it lacked the power to do that and James had to help it on, by which time the Dutchman had got a yard beyond the last defender, and so was correctly flagged for offside. And so it was time to try a few subs to see if that could change anything.

Rothwell was replaced by Solomon and Gnonto moved into a more central position. Which almost paid dividends as the Italian was picked out by an excellent cross from James, but we needed that chance to fall to a taller man, as Gnonto could only send it high and wide. And that would prove to be our best chance of the game.

Gnonto himself would be one of the next players replaced, and looked as unhappy as ever. Bogle was also removed, as Bamford and Joseph came on, in a classic Farke ‘bung all the strikers on as we’re losing’ move. I don’t know who was meant to be playing right back now, but we hardly needed one, as Millwall continued to be very defensive for a home team.

Joseph could do with a few more goals, but almost got one at the wrong end, as an attempted clearance sliced off his head and came back off the post. As we reached the final minute Meslier came up for a corner and actually got his head to the ball, but to no great effect. The final chance of the night fell to James, but he sent it well over, and that was it.

We can take solace from the fact that at least we lost to a decent side, and Milwall’s fourth consecutive 1-0 win took them up to fifth for 24 hours, before tonight's 0-0 draw between WBA and Burnley. It’s handy that Sheffield United were the only other winners in the top 6, and they had me swearing at my phone on Tuesday as it told me they had come from behind to beat Bristol City.

So we remain well in touch with the leaders, and in our next ten fixtures we face nobody higher than eighth in the table. But if we could just master that “efficiency to use your chances” and turn our possession into goals that would come in very handy.

Reuters

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