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Date: 24 November 2021
This wasn’t the greatest of matches I’ve seen – as there were few goal attempts by either team, both of whom did a lot of ‘hoofing’ of the ball – but in the end the result was a fair one in my opinion.
It was my first away game of the season (so, I’d earned a useful loyalty point anyway!) and I was impressed by how well the crowds were being organised at South Bermondsey Station, the stewarding of the turnstiles, programme sales and a delicious pie! A pleasant enough evening out.
Our stand seemed almost full and made a lot of noise: especially the now traditional full sixty seconds of chanting David Brooks’ name when the clock showed seven minutes. But the three home stands were very sparsely occupied. Our team lined up with Kilkenny (who evidently played well after coming on at Derby) in for Lewis Cook (who’s not yet fully match fit after a long beak); and Lowe in for the suspended Billing. Lowe was playing wide right while Christie was employed in a more central position. Mepham, Davis and Kilkenny had good games. Our weakest link on the night was Stacey, whose footwork was all over the place and whose passes mostly seemed to go awry. But in his favour he did play a vital part in the lead up to Solanke’s close range goal just before half time, crossing a ball he’d received from Lerma.
So we ended the first half, and began the second, a goal up – but the first half had been very boring apart from that. On the hour mark, Parker brought on Lewis Cook (deemed to be fit enough to manage half an hour) for Kilkenny – who was on a yellow card for a dive. Five minutes or so later Cahill sustained an injury – and was even, worryingly, off the pitch during a Millwall corner kick. (Luckily we had two centre backs on the bench tonight, Ibsen Rossi and Steve Cook, but even more fortunately they weren’t required as Cahill was able to carry on.) It was shortly after this that he (Cahill) was involved in a one-on-one race with Afobe, which Afobe won. Travers came out to meet Afobe’s shot but it whizzed past him and the score was now 1-1.
As the game rolled on, with Millwall growing into it more and more, I think there came a time when most Bournemouth fans were ready to settle for a draw. We just screamed at our boys not to give away possession when they did have the ball, for fear Millwall might score a winner.
At the final whistle, in a nice touch, Afobe – who’d already acknowledged the Bournemouth fans with a friendly wave earlier in the game – now joined the Bournemouth players in coming over to applaud us, the fans. This was greatly appreciated and resulted in prolonged chanting of “Benik Afobe”. Meanwhile I returned to South Bermondsey station where, despite a packed platform awaiting the next London Bridge train, every single person managed to get on (there were even spare seats) and the platform was deserted by the time the train moved out.
The team lined up as follows at the start of the game:
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Travers;
Stacey, Cahill, Mepham, Davis;
Kilkenny;
Lowe, Lerma, Christie, Anthony;
Solanke
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Travers;
Stacey, Cahill, Mepham, Davis;
L Cook;
Christie, Marcondes, Lerma, Rogers;
Solanke
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