By CCFC Sid
October 5 2003

Unbelievable! Once again CCFC were the better side, but came away from the (New?) Den with nil points, as slack defending gifted Millwall two goals. Less than 10,000 supporters saw a fairly dull first half, in which CCFC enjoyed the majority of the possession. Unfortunately CCFC failed to turn that into clear-cut chances and goals, so went in at half-time with nothing to show for their efforts.

McAllister did hit a post for CCFC after 20 minutes, and also had a 25th minute free-kick tipped over the bar by Warner in the Millwall goal, but there was very little action in either goal-mouth during the first 45 minutes....

With Dennis Wise on the pitch, there's always likely to be the odd unsavoury incident, and so it proved, with Safri lucky to stay on the pitch after 26 minutes when he reacted to a Wise challenge. Safri received a yellow card for his troubles - plus a rollocking from Gary McAllister!

And, as is also fairly normal in football, an ex player turning out for the opposition usually suffers booing and abuse during a match - though I'm fairly sure that Noel Whelan would have expected to be booed by CCFC supporters, not Millwall fans!

Shearer came through the first half virtually untested, but his decision to stay on his goal-line early in the second half, rather than come out and claim a routine catch, almost saw Cahill gift Millwall the lead. Shearer then made two excellent saves to stop Millwall taking the lead, but was beaten by Ifill after 63 minutes.

A long throw was missed by every CCFC defender, and Ifill was given two chances to score inside the six yard area, gratefully accepting the second - though the question has be asked: "Where was the CCFC defence? And/or Scott Shearer?"

Minutes later, Joachim was again brought on from the substitutes bench (For Barrett), but had nowhere near the same impact as he managed on Wednesday. The player he replaced on Wednesday, Adebola, showed great pace to take on and beat Millwall's right-back, and cut the ball back to Staunton who was fouled inside the area by Lawrence. The resulting spot-kick was put away with ease, with Staunton sending Warner the wrong way to score.

Five minutes later Millwall brought Neil Harris on, and he scored the winner after 85 minutes. A poor McAllister clearance was hoofed back into the CCFC penalty area (a la Paul Williams), and, with the entire CCFC defence looking to play the offside trap, Harris finished with ease. CCFC claimed he was yards offside (An opinion TV replays seem to support), but, whether or not he was offside should have been irrelevant, as CCFC should have played to the referee's whistle, not stopping because they thought the decision would be given....

Cahill received a red card for Millwall in the 90th minute, but CCFC didn't have time to make the extra man advantage count, and left London wondering just how they had managed to lose again....

In an after-match interview, Mo Konjic (Who sounds more and more like `Lodka' from `Taxi' everyday!) was clearly upset at CCFC's inability to hold onto a result, rightly pointing out that if CCFC were capable of making all their possession count, they would now be amongst the play-off places - if not the automatic promotion places.....