29.09.18 Millwall I v Illford (A)

Millwall took the short trip to Ilford Wanderers this Saturday gone, hoping to rid themselves of the monkey that was clinging so tightly to their backs. 

Welcoming back names such as Grant Thompson and with the weather playing perfectly into Millwall’s hands, the atmosphere in the changing room was positive.

However, it was Ilford who came out quickest and after a few hard and fast lines, they earnt a penalty to put themselves 3-0 up. 

Millwall started to put a few phases together and, had dragged the opposition pack into the middle of the park, flung the ball smartly out wide to Thompson, who powered past three defenders to score on the touch line. Cooper squeezed over the conversion from out wide. 

Ilford powered back and managed to score two tries in quick succession, putting themselves into a comfortable position. 

Millwall’s half time chat was all about keeping the ball in attack and pushing hard in defence - two things they had heard countless times before. Lacklustre defence allowed the Ilford forwards to power over either side of two Millwall tries - firstly, a powerful drive from Eoin McCabe, the second a smart dummy from Rio Cooper to open up the space before giving Andy Matthews the ball to race over from 5 metres out - before the Ilford 10 grabbed another five pointer after charging down a chip and chase and outpacing the back line. 

Despite another late try from Thompson, the Millwall 15 had left too many opportunities unfinished and found themselves 10 points down at the final whistle.