Millwall in 2024/25 - Part Two

Last time, in Millwall in 2024/5...

After losing a manager called Neil, Millwall replaced him with a Neil. Alex Neil, to be precise - considering his record with Norwich and Sunderland, getting both teams promoted, I'd consider his appointment to be somewhat of a coup. It also meant the faint playoff hopes could be ignited once more, after what had been a fairly turbulent campaign.

His first game was a 1-0 loss at home to Oxford, who had recently appointed former Millwall boss Gary Rowett, indeed it took nearly a month before he won his first league game in a 1-0 away win against struggling Luton. In that time, Millwall drew to Cardiff and lost to Hull, both quite concerning as neither team was any good to that point. 

He did win in the FA Cup in that time, however - a 3-0 win against non-league Dagenham and Redbridge, where young starlet Raess Bangura-Williams scored a stunning goal, and Mihailo Ivanovic scored a less impressive, more scrappy, header. 

That win, admittedly, was expected. Perhaps the 1-0 win against Portsmouth in the league, which had been postponed from the Harris year due to power failures at Fratton Park, was also expected. Yet a solid win against QPR not soon after capped off some impressive results for Neil, and Millwall were still 13th, yet only four points off of 6th placed West Brom.

In the transfer window, Tristan Crama joined from Brentford in what turned out to be a great signing, with him performing quite excellently at the back, and Camiel Neghli joined the Lions for a club record fee of about £4m from Sparta Rotterdam. It was an exciting time to be a Millwall fan, the last few days of January.

Leeds United away (8th February)

As a reward for beating Dagenham and Redbridge, Millwall got to play Leeds United away in the FA Cup, a game I've already blogged about when discussing the city. Sure, Elland Road isn't my favourite stadium - far from it - yet the match was worth the visit. Online reaction was fairly muted to this comprehensive 2-0 win, where Femi Azeez particularly performed well, perhaps as many claimed Leeds had played a weakened squad, but also because Plymouth Argyle, then bottom of the Championship, beat Liverpool 1-0. So Millwall knocking their rivals out saw no reaction from the press.

I was thinking after Plymouth won, how in these blogposts at the end of the campaign I could joke that Millwall were better than Liverpool, because we had beaten Plymouth. A week later, Millwall lost 5-1 to Plymouth. At least we didn't get relegated.

Draws to West Brom and Preston followed, before a 1-0 win against Derby County meant Millwall were up to 12th, finally on a neutral goal difference, ahead of the fifth round FA Cup game to Crystal Palace.

I didn't go to the match, but I've blogged about Selhurst Park - yet I did watch the game on TV, most of it at least. That meant I missed out on seeing goalkeeper Liam Roberts commit a rather dangerous foul on Palace striker Jean-Philippe Mateta live, but I was there to hear Palace chairman Steve Parish condemn him with quite strong words. And reading news reports, I did also hear of the Millwall chants where some sang "let him die". 

All this overshadowed a 3-1 loss for Millwall, and perhaps deservedly so, with Roberts eventually getting a six game match ban for the foul. In fact, it overshadowed the match so much there were plenty of news reports every day about the incident, and the Daily Mail even reported on the next two Millwall matches to say what the fans had been chanting. I reckon the reporting was all too excessive and probably intended to criticise Millwall, not to stand with Mateta, though I expect nothing less from tabloids of their ilk.

A loss to Bristol City the following week put a dampener on the playoff hopes, before a visit to Watford, which I went to.

Watford away (8th March)

This is the away game I didn't blog about, owing to Watford not being all too interesting. Yes, I went to the tube station, and yes, I admired the daffodils at Cassiobury Park. Vicarage Road is a stunning example of glassy brutalism, but I stood for the whole game because the away stand was at full capacity. They even played a snippet of Elton John before the game, because copyright issues must be easier to resolve when he's a fan.

Yes, the aforementioned chanting did often happen, and there was support for Roberts, including clapping at the 8th minute of the game. I'm not entirely convinced the fans were evil, though, as the news said - I doubt many chanters genuinely wanted any injuries to players, after all. 

The game itself was a tidy 2-1 win. Watford were okay in the first half, but were very clearly outclassed come the second - and Josh Coburn's tidy finish sealed the win in the 81st minute. Millwall moved up to 12th, and I thankfully had a relatively short train ride home. A much needed revenge for the match back in August.

  

Middlesbrough and Swansea at home (12th and 26th April)

From here, Millwall played rather well, picking up key wins and only losing to those in far better form - mostly. A loss to Leeds was followed by a win against Stoke, a loss to Sunderland followed by a win against Portsmouth. Then they beat Sheffield United, fighting to go up, and Millwall became the only team to beat Leeds, Burnley, and United that season.

 

My dad bought into the playoff hype and got me to see their matches against Middlesbrough (right image) and Swansea (left image), both largely forgettable affairs which ended in 1-0 wins: the former saw Neghli score before immediately getting injured, and the latter had George Saville score the winner after a free kick routine. Between the two fixtures was a 4-1 loss to Blackburn Rovers, who had plateaued right at the end of the season, and a great 3-1 win against Norwich, which various fans who I overheard had called the best game they'd ever seen Millwall play. 

I could have travelled all the way to Burnley to see Millwall's last match, but I doubt I could have got a blogpost out of it, and besides it wasn't worth it in the end. Coventry and Bristol City got in the playoffs at Millwall's expense, and both lost in the semi-finals to varying extents. 

Now time for the end of season awards:

Best player in the eight games I watched - Japhet Tanganga: I'm not sure if he played every game, but when he did, he was fantastic at the back. We're so lucky to have him at the Den - it's easy to forget Jose Mourinho often started him at Spurs - and his presence has helped build our defence, coming in handy when defending 1-0 leads at the very end.

Best match watched - Leeds United: On account of this being the only game where Millwall were consistently in control, playing fantastic football and even seeing Leeds fail to convert a penalty. This was the only match when I felt like there were no dull spells, they were that good.