Baggies need to be better against Millwall

Brummie Road Ender

·4 Oktober 2024

Baggies need to be better against Millwall

West Bromwich Albion v Millwall; The Hawthorns, Saturday 5th October 2024, 3pm

Carlos Corberán’s pre-match press conference this morning spoke of Albion’s back-to-back defeats needing to be a motivation to be better. The Baggies seemed to be serenely progressing from one win to the next as they started with five wins and a draw from their first six Championship games of the campaign, but a couple of below par performances has seen them stutter and, perhaps, provided something of a reality check to the fans.

I was disappointed but not surprised to hear a smattering of boos from the Brummie Road End when I left the match on Tuesday evening. Yes, it was a disappointing result and not the most sparkling performance, but it does seem a bit churlish to start booing given the unexpectedly great start to the campaign. Had the defeats come in games 3 and 6, for example, rather than games 7 and 8, the feelings would have been very different but the result exactly the same.

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The first half at Hillsborough was undoubtedly poor, but I felt that the display against Middlesbrough wasn’t all that different to those against Swansea City and Plymouth Argyle. It did lack the fast start that had been a feature of Albion’s home games this season, but the careful probing in possession and the occasional chance for the opposition have all been there in those two 1-0 victories. The difference on Tuesday was that the opposition were much better in defence, and much more clinical in Albion’s box.

The other key difference was in personnel. Corberán, presumably on the advice of his medical team, has been cautious with his players, resting Fellows on Tuesday and giving Molumby plenty of time to recover from his issue, but their absence has been notable, as was that of Mowatt at Hillsborough. The news this week is that Molumby is fully recovered, as is Grady Diangana who missed Tuesday’s match, and I’m expecting a return to the starting eleven that Corberán fielded for the first five games of the campaign.

There have been some suggestions that Grant may come out of the side but, so far, Mikey Johnston has failed to really impress off the bench to suggest a start may be imminent but Callum Styles, who produced one wonderful through ball on Tuesday, could be an option on the left. John Swift is another that has been a little below his best in the last two matches, and maybe Grady could get a start as the most impressive of the substitutes so far this season.

One fact of Tuesday’s game was the poor passing from the centre backs, with Bartley misplacing several “Hollywood” balls over the top – I don’t see either being dropped because of that, however, and would more point to Middlesbrough’s intelligent defending to block off the simpler balls into midfield thereby forcing the long balls. I would, personally, be surprised to see a change to the back four, but Corberán has surprised me many times!

Saturday’s opposition have had a very mixed start to the season and currently sit in 16th place with eight points from their opening eight games. Both of their league victories have come at home, against Sheffield Wednesday and Preston North End, and their only points on the road have come in draws at Hull City and QPR. Tuesday evening saw them beaten 1-0 by bottom club, Cardiff City, who registered their first win of the campaign, arguably their most disappointing result of the season. Manager, Neil Harris, certainly felt is was their worst performance of the season, so they, too, will be looking to bounce back.

This match will see two of the top three Championship goalscorers on display. The Lions’ Duncan Watmore is third in the table with five goals, a couple behind Maja (Norwich City’s Borja Sainz sits between them), although he hasn’t found the net in either of their last two matches. Watmore scored against Albion at the Den in March, but he hasn’t previously scored more than nine goals in an entire season, so it is certainly something of a surprise to see him near the top of the scoring charts.

Watmore’s scoring streak is even less likely given that he plays off the left side rather than centrally – in recent games, the centre forward spot has been occupied by Macaulay Langstaff, a summer signing from Notts County. He scored 28 goals for County in League Two last season having scored an incredible 41 goals in the National League in their promotion campaign the previous year. He certainly knows where the goal is and has scored once so far this season, in the home victory over Preston North End last weekend.

Another new signing that Baggies fans may be familiar with is centre back Japhet Tanganga, who joined on a free transfer from Tottenham Hotspur in the summer having been at the Den on loan for the second half of last season. The 25-year-old’s career at Spurs was significantly hampered by injury but he has been a virtual ever-present for Millwall since January as he looks to get his career back on track.

Harris is in his second spell as Millwall manager – he was sacked in October 2019 after six years in charge but was reappointed in February as the Lions’ third permanent manager of the season and guided them to safety winning the last five games of the campaign. He has been unable to continue that form into the new season, however, and both sides will be looking to recover from midweek defeats.

If Albion are to reassert their promotion credentials, this is a match that needs to be won. Millwall have proved tricky opposition in recent seasons, however, and nothing can be take for granted in the Championship.

History

Albion have not beaten Millwall in the last six meetings and have just one win in the last ten, the 2-0 win at the Den during Storm Ciara just before the COVID lockdown. At the Hawthorns, the Baggies have won only four of the last fourteen encounters since to the 5-1 League Cup win in 1983, losing five and drawing five.

Jed Wallace is the stand out player from the current squads to have played for both clubs, making the move from the Den to the Hawthorns in the summer of 2022. Jayson Molumby had a loan spell at Millwall playing 40 games for the Lions in the 2019/20 season, including in the aforementioned 2-0 defeat to the Baggies in February 2020 (alongside Jed Wallace). New summer signing, Callum Styles, also had a loan spell at Millwall for the 2022/23 season scoring against Albion in their 2-1 win in South Bermondsey in October 2022. None of the current Lions squad has ever played for the Baggies.

In recent years, Ken Zohore had a loan spell at Millwall from Albion while the much-maligned Oli Burke had two loan spells at Millwall from Sheffield United and actually scored four goals for the club – he has only scored more for Nottingham Forest (6) throughout his career. Millwall was one of the clubs that Chris Wood was loaned out to in his formative years at the Baggies, and was the most successful as he scored 11 goals in 19 appearances in the 2012/13 season and earned him a transfer to Leicester City in January 2013.

Steven Reid, who became a firm favourite at the Hawthorns, started his career at Millwall making in excess of 150 appearances for the Lions between 1998 and 2003 while three of the Baggies’ 2002 promotion team subsequently played for Millwall in Derek McInnes, Scott Dobie and Danny Dichio. Lloyd Dyer, Richard Chaplow, Darren Carter and Rob Hulse also had spells at the Den, as did Shaun Cummings, Darren Purse and Jason van Blerk.

Going back a little further, the Ulster duo of Jimmy Nicholl and Gerry Armstrong both played for Millwall, as did former Baggies manager Sam Allardyce – he made just one substitute appearances as a player for Albion but had two seasons at Cold Blow Lane in the early 80s playing more than 70 times.

Even further back, legendary Baggies goalkeeper Harold Pearson, son of Hubert who was also a goalkeeper for Albion, made over 300 appearances for the Baggies between 1927 and 1937 before moving to Millwall for the final two seasons before the outbreak of World War II.