Petering out
By Jr
February 27 2005
The Lions’ season is showing signs of petering out as, though a 1-0 midweek victory at Cardiff City raised play-off hopes, a defeat on Saturday at Brighton by the same score line promptly dashed them again.
Brighton 1 Millwall 0 26-2-05
The Lions’ season is showing signs of petering out as, though a 1-0 midweek victory at Cardiff City raised play-off hopes, a defeat on Saturday at Brighton by the same score line promptly dashed them again.
Despite Danny Dichio’s winner from the penalty spot at Ninian Park and the welcome three points, the squad has subsequently been significantly weakened by an injury, suspensions and a high profile departure.
Popular striker Barry Hayles was withdrawn at Cardiff with a hamstring injury which will keep him out for around three weeks, while Alan Dunne and David Livermore were sent off following a fracas and have been hit with lengthy suspensions.
Likewise, Mark Phillips saw red at the Withdean and, if the Lions’ poor disciplinary record wasn’t enough to hamper the team’s chances of making the play-offs, the decision to sell Scott Dobie to Nottingham Forest the day before the Brighton game certainly smacked of a lack of ambition.
Had Millwall waited another two days before selling Dobie, the decision would have been more understandable, though in the club’s defence perhaps they didn’t want to risk the striker sustaining an injury that would have jeopardised the move.
In the final analysis, the sale of Dobie for £25,000 more than the Lions paid West Bromwich Albion just a few months earlier makes business sense, bearing in mind the striker couldn’t settle in London and only found the back of the net three times.
Millwall’s half a million pound signing, however, attributed his poor goalscoring record to his being played out of position on the right wing.
Ironically, Dobie could have played in his preferred striking role at the Withdean had he remained at the club.
Lions player boss Dennis Wise was as disappointed as the fans about Dobie’s departure: “"We didn't want Scott to go, but it was out of our hands.
“It was a board decision taken for financial reasons.
"It makes it very difficult and although we can now bring in two players on loan that won't be easy to do as a lot of teams don't want to lose players at this time.
“The problem is that clubs don’t want to let you have their better players and some that were available have now gone.
“We have already tried for certain players. We don’t just want to get bodies in for the sake of it.
“If I can’t get the right players in, then I’ll persist with the young players that we’ve got here.”
Tony Craig has made the most of his opportunity to impress at left back, while other youngsters are also making a name for themselves.
Mark Quigley was making his first start for the Lions, and on the subject of the young striker Wise said:
“The Withdean maybe isn’t the easiest place to make your full debut, but Mark Quigley did quite well upfront and had a couple of chances which perhaps he could have done a little better with.
Wise added: “Curtis Weston also did very well.”
The youngsters certainly didn‘t deserve to return to south London empty-handed as Wise admitted: “We did deserve something, at least a draw.
“Brighton had one opportunity in the last minute of the game and due to sloppy defending the ball ended up in the back of the net.
“It was sad because we had a couple of youngsters out there who did very well and it was a shame we didn’t get anything out of the game.”
Without a home win in 2005, Millwall’s youngsters will have the opportunity on Sunday (kick off 2pm) against a resurgent Leeds United to improve that dismal record at the Den.