Millwall 1 Leeds United 0.
It was a tight game at the New Den, but Millwall got the breakthrough in the 72nd. minute, through their all-time leading scorer Neil Harris.
Simon Grayson made two changes to the starting line-up. Snodgrass was restored to the right flank, having rested his dodgy ankle last week, and in the heart of defence Sodje got the nod ahead of Rui. Leeds produced the first chance of the game when Beckford did well to get a shot in despite the close attention of a couple of defenders. Millwall keeper Forde made a bit of a meal of it, but eventually managed to push the ball wide of the post.
Then it was Millwall’s turn, and Frampton volleyed wide after a free kick. And the next chance came after Douglas had lost the ball outside the area, but Casper did well to force Price wide rather than diving in and risking a penalty, and the Millwall player ran the ball out for a goal kick. After that the tension started to take hold, and neither side could create any decent openings for the rest of the half.
Instead, things began to get a bit heated, firstly when Snodgrass and Martin were rather harshly booked after a piece of shoving down by the touchline. Another set-to followed when Kilkenny had been brought down, but the worst foul of the half came from Delph, a rather high kick on Alexander than brought him his eleventh booking of the season.
The stalemate seemed to have rather muted the Millwall crowd, and the 1,000 Leeds fans managed to make themselves clearly heard with a rousing chorus of “Marching on Together”. But the game opened out in the second half, which we started by putting Millwall under pressure with a series of corners, before our best move of the game saw Beckford set up by a clever backheel from Becchio. But once again the home defence were quick to deny him space, and Frampton blocked the shot at the expense of a corner.
Then Millwall produced a good spell of their own, and Harris was unlucky not to score with a clever flick in front of goal, as Casper reacted in time to push the ball round the post. By now Millwall had realised that their best option would be to attack down their right, where Whitbread went past Parker all too easily on several occasions. As the game moved into the last 20 minutes I dared to start thinking that a goalless draw would be an excellent result to take back to Elland Road, so inevitably Millwall chose that moment to take the lead.
It came on the break, and a long ball down their right found Alexander in plenty of space. Naylor couldn’t quite get his head to the cross, and Harris was left with time to turn and shoot past Casper into the corner. The goal caused a pitch invasion at that end, and while most Millwall fans were celebrating, one of them took the opportunity to assault Casper in the goalmouth.
For the rest of the game Millwall seemed keen to play for time, even though one goal is only a slender lead to take to Leeds for the second leg. Grayson sent Johnson and Robinson on for Howson and Snodgrass, but didn’t manage to get the equaliser and Millwall held on to win a play-off game for the first time in nine attempts.
The result puts us under pressure for the second leg, and although we’ve won eleven successive games at Elland Road, if we can’t make it twelve our chances of promotion will be over for another season. But with the backing of the vast majority of a 37,000 crowd I’m still confident that we’re going to get through to the final once again.