Millwall (h), The ACN Review

Biggest positive

A frustrating night in attack against a well-organised defence that were quick to crowd us out, but the unbeaten run continues with another point on the tally and good performances from Hanley, Sorensen and Skipp among others.

Weekend whinge

In the run-up to the game there was a fair bit of confusion as to whether the game would be on Sky Sports’ red button service or not. Sky’s red button deal covers the eight regular midweek rounds in the Championship, but apparently because there are extra midweek games this season due to the late start, those this midweek are among those that are classified as having been rearranged from a weekend and so aren’t on the contract to be shown via the red button (this will be the case for six midweek rounds this season, according to footieontv.com).

That might be OK if Sky made it clear that certain midweek games aren’t able to be shown, but Norwich v Millwall was advertised on their own Sky Sports News channel as being on the red button in the days leading up to the game. Given that presumably a lot of fans of Championship clubs weigh up the not inconsiderable cost of subscribing to Sky on the basis that all midweek games are included, there was understandable frustration about having to pay an unexpected £10 for iFollow on the day of the game.

As for iFollow itself, they attempted to liven up the evening with lots of unnecessary replays, often cutting into important live action. If we’ve got a corner I want to see how we’re setting up in the box and Buendia taking it, instead of a slow-mo replay of the innocuous way it was won that cuts back to the live action only when the ball’s already halfway into the area.

Moment of the match

Probably the heart-stopping Millwall breakaway at the very end of injury time when Shaun Williams’ shot clipped the bar. Apparently there were some away fans watching from a room at the Holiday Inn – they might have fallen out of the window celebrating if that one had gone in. Nice not to be sucker-punched, anyway.

Random star performer

Grant Hanley was immense again. It’s a welcome feeling when the opposition have a corner to be pretty sure that his big head will be popping up in the middle of the penalty area to get rid of it, and he’s no slouch when chasing down a ball either. There were a few odd/attention-seeking reactions on social media earlier in the day on Tuesday from some Scotland fans moaning that he was back in their squad for the first time since 2018, but if called upon for their Euro 2020 play-off against Serbia he’ll be a big asset on current form.

Farke Watch

Sometimes they work (as we’ve seen often this season), sometimes they don’t, but the triple sub with about 12 minutes to go seemed to have the opposite effect to what was intended; we lost some of the momentum that had been building and Millwall had a five-minute spell pushing us back. At least the return of Idah from suspension on Saturday will give us another option if we want to chuck strikers on towards the end, as the introduction of Hugill didn’t really work on this occasion. He struggled to hold it up and keep possession and didn’t get much on his header that drifted wide.

Summary

What’s there to say? On the basis of possession and dominance we probably should have won but we fluffed the chances we had, while Millwall barely had any, so a draw seems fair. The next game against Swansea will be interesting – we’ve pretty much matched each other so far this season, with the course of their game at Brentford on Tuesday uncannily mirroring ours the week before. A win on Saturday would be a big one.