Match Report: Birmingham City 1-1 Millwall
Birmingham City vs Millwall was always destined to finish 1-1. Ryan Deeney breaks down why and how as well as discussing the key players involved.
Birmingham City vs Millwall.
This was destined to finish 1-1. I was so confident I put money on it happening.
That's very specific, I hear you say. Why, Ryan?
Here's the waffle.
Under Pep Clotet, we drew 1-1 and 0-0. Under Aitor Karanka, we drew 0-0 and lost 2-0. Lee Bowyer brought chaos to the fixture, not in our favour. Under John Eustace, we have drawn 0-0 and won 1-0. This fixture doesn't bring a lot of goals. And Eustace and Gary Rowett would sooner win 1-0 than 4-3.
For the first time since Millwall won promotion back to the second tier, we didn't play Millwall on a damp, cold, depressing October or November evening. It was relatively sunny. It's early in the season. We're still playing on the front foot. We were scoring a goal.
But it's ha Rowett and Millwall. Exactly the type of opponent that make life awkward for us. We weren't full strength. We weren't winning. But we're made of stronger stuff. We weren't losing.
Therefore, 1-1.
Here's how it happened.
The match report
Jay Stansfield's second goal in as many games was enough to continue Birmingham City's unbeaten start to the season.
Kevin Nisbet fired Millwall into an early lead and they had a second ruled out for offside before Matija Sarkic saved Scott Hogan's penalty. Thankfully, Stansfield, making his full debut, was on hand to secure a point for his new side.
Eustace made two changes for from the side that beat Plymouth Argyle, Cody Drameh joining Stansfield in the XI for the first time with Jordan James and Koji Miyoshi dropping to the bench. Emmanuel Aiwu was in the matchday squad for the first time.
Blues started the game on the front foot and played some decent stuff, Juninho Bacuna firing over the most notable effort of the afternoon. However, the first break from Millwall saw Kevin Long foul Nisbet, the Scotsman stepping up to beat John Ruddy from 20 yards.
It wasn't lost on some Blues fans that we chased Kevin Nisbet during the winter window under Aitor Karanka only to sign Sam Cosgrove instead, who was released the night before this game after two and a half years and three loan spells away. What could have been, eh?
The goal knocked Blues, even in spite of a couple of decent efforts. Stansfield headed wide before Drameh's scuffed crossfield pass found Nisbet who curled over. Stansfield and Bielik did well to find Bacuna who couldn't connect cleanly with two strikes and Sanderson headed over.
Millwall thought they had doubled their lead in spectacular fashion when a corner was pinged to Ryan Leonard on the run 30 yards from goal. The connection was sweet and Jake Cooper helped the ball beyond Ruddy, only for the linesman to, eventually, raise his flag for offside.
Nisbet was denied a second by an excellent block after a smart turn in the area. Blues were making a lot of unforced errors and it took a moment from Bacuna to get Blues back in the final third, moving inside from the right where he, then Ivan Sunjic failed to find the target.
Keshi Anderson had clearly had enough, especially after Blues old boy Wes Harding headed over at the near post. The winger picked up possession and drove forward into space, found Bacuna - that man again - and latched onto a reverse pass from the Curucao international ahead of Sarkic to win a penalty. Scott Hogan stepped up and struck for the bottom corner only to see his effort saved.
Blues needed to settle down and they did so during the halftime break. A more assured start followed and it took less than 10 minutes to equalise, Bacuna again involved as he beat Mitchell then played Stansfield in behind to arrow a shot into the far bottom corner. Ruthless. Level.
Stansfield produced two moments of brilliance in quick succession but couldn't put Blues ahead. Zian Flemming and Jake Cooper tried their luck. Hogan fired over from distance while Saville tested the gloves of Ruddy.
That was pretty much that. The next 20 minutes saw six subs made but Lee Buchanan's wayward effort was the closest any side got. That was until Emmanuel Longelo, the last of those subs, provided a gorgeous low cross that Hogan had read and was ready to tap in until Jake Cooper, the most handsy defender on the planet, got his hands round the striker to halt his progress.
Of course, Hogan scoring would have meant more than two goals in a match between Millwall and Blues. Couldn't be having that now, could we?
Lineups
Blues: Ruddy; Drameh Sanderson Long Buchanan; Sunjic Bielik; Bacuna (JJ 82) Stansfield (Miyoshi 72) Anderson (Longelo 90); Hogan. Unused Etheridge; Oakley Roberts Aiwu Gardner Khela
Millwall: Sarkic; Leonard Hutchinson (Harding 32) Cooper; Norton-Cuffy (McNamara 76) Mitchell Saville (Esse 82) Wallace (Longman 76); Flemming; Bradshaw Nisbet (Campbell 76). Subs: Bialkowski; De Norre Watmore Emakhu
Tactics
Blues lined up in their 4-2-3-1 shape while Millwall started in a 3-4-1-2. At least, nominally.
In possession, Millwall set about in classic style. Mitchell and Saville sat in front of the back three but rarely with the intention of taking the ball from them. On the rare occasion they did, Bielik or Sunjic were quick to step up. Millwall's game was all about finding the wing-backs or front three to feet as quickly and as high up the pitch as possible. They could play from there.
Blues didn't have to reinvent the wheel to halt them. They set up in their usual 4-2-4 shape to press and narrow the pitch, Bacuna and Anderson with the most awkward task as they stepped inside from the other flank to sit on the second defensive midfielder. It left Blues 4 v 3 at the back and only the back three free to receive the ball.
Blues were generally quick and tidy in possession, at least in the spells they played their stuff. For the most part, the shape was similar in respects of being a little "lopsided" in possession, having Anderson high and wide with Drameh slightly wider than Buchanan on the other side.
Millwall were generally happy to leave Drameh free out of possession, Nisbet and Bradshaw marshalling the Blues backline with Flemming and Saville pushing onto Bielik and Sunjic. Wallace wasn't as quick to step onto Drameh as Norton-Cuffy was to get on top of Anderson. Cooper got into a scrap with Bacuna, Hutchinson then Harding marshalled Hogan with Leonard tasked with looking after the right-hand channel.
Blues showed several ways of beating Millwall's shape.
The first was a more direct approach to switching sides. Rather than playing two or three passes to move to the other flank, Drameh, Buchanan, Bielik and Sunjic were attempting to do it in one.
A second was through the energy of Stansfield and Sunjic, who would step forward to open the space inside, occupying Mitchell and Leonard, forcing Saville deeper leaving Anderson or Bielik with more space in the centre of the pitch to either drive forward or find the pass out to Drameh. There were also times when Stansfield and Anderson would dovetail and cause some confusion before making the same movements.
There was a third way, but that just involved waiting for Juninho Bacuna to go full Juninho Bacuna, as happened for the goal.
The substitutions were mostly like-for-like with the exception of James replacing Bacuna, Miyoshi transferring to the right with James asked to play behind Hogan.
Players
Let's start with the positives. Dion Sanderson was excellent again. Lee Buchanan is proving a revelation. Krystian Bielik was one of few affected by Blues' first half difficulties, with the exception of one wild pass. And we are all going to fall in love with Jay Stansfield, aren't we?
Kevin Long endured a difficult start to the game but settled himself for the second half and didn't give Millwall's forwards a sniff.
Juninho Bacuna. He spent much of the first half being the worst version of himself. He got too involved with Jake Cooper, who was intent on winding him up by manhandling him at every opportunity. It didn't help that he had miskicked three efforts at goal. Then he turned it on. Reverse pass for the penalty. Assist for the goal. Excellent when he's on his game.
Scott Hogan. He'll be the fall guy because he missed the penalty. He does need taking off the. You can't continue with a guy that has failed to score five of his last seven from the spot. However, he worked hard again, led the press and put himself about. And he was close to winning the game until hands were wrapped around him.
Cody Drameh. An indifferent debut. We should be careful comparing him immediately to Ethan Laird who had a full pre-season before his debut, rather than being thrust in for his debut a day after signing. He's got a decent first touch. He can switch play. He made a few errant passes early on and failed to take on his man a couple of times. A bit raw, but clear that there is something there.
For Millwall, Norton-Cuffy was the standout, their best avenue out of defensive positions with his driving runs forward. Kevin Nisbet had little affect on the game in general play but can clearly sniff out a chance. I've mocked Jake Cooper for those hands but he knows what he's doing and did the defensive job asked of him, sticking with a tricky customer in Bacuna and defending his box.
Conclusions
It was Millwall. It was tough. Awkward. They asked questions of us that most sides don't ask. And we went behind, a challenge we haven't faced this season.
How did we respond? Iffy at first. We beat ourselves rather than Millwall hurting us. But we slowly got our act together, the experienced players started doing the right things again, we showed patience, scored an excellent equaliser and got the point.
Factor in that we entered this game without Ethan Laird, Siriki Dembele, Lukas Jutkiewicz, Tyler Roberts and George Hall and it's more impressive. The starting XI were excellent. The substitutes came on without affecting the quality or shape of the team.
It's been a fantastic start to the season, we remain unbeaten and everybody deserves enormous credit for that. There will be tougher moments, but let's enjoy this while we can.