Football Manager Blog | Football Manager Guru | Millwall In August

Hello and welcome to my second post as Millwall manager. In this post, I will be telling you about the 7 games played in August. As I was telling you in the previous post, I had a media prediction to finish 5^th in the league and wanted to fulfil that expectation.

With us going to be playing in a few cups as well, I would field a slightly weaker side, as my main focus was getting into the play-offs and gaining promotion up to the Coca Cola Championship. Below is the first game of the season which I believe is a big one.

With us being away to a side with 10 points deducted, but a media prediction of 3^rd is a big game as Southampton are a team that would be pushing for a promotion place, did they not have 10 points deducted. So the game started off with both teams having even amounts of the possession.

It wasn’t until the 55^th minute when Abdou was playing good 1-2’s with people until he gave it to Giancarlo Carpinelli, who played a through ball to Neil Harris who slotted the ball into the near corner.

9 Minutes later, Jason Price touched on a ball in from Andy Frampton, onto Neil Harris who struck his second of the game into the bottom right corner.

This game was a big one for me as it was my first competitive game as Millwall manager, and I won it 2-0 against a good side, which made me confident on my hunt for promotion.

Next game was against Brentford in the League Cup 1^st Round away from home.

Brentford are a side that are expected to finish mid table in League 1 who could be a tough side for all teams in the league. This match was played at Griffin Park in the League Cup. I wasn’t really bothered about the cup’s as I wanted to focus on the league but fielded a strong side anyway.

In the 6^th minute, Steve Morison crossed the ball in for Jason Price who headed it down into the Brentford keeper’s arms, who then spilled it right to the feet of Neil Harris who smashed it into the bottom right corner.

Gary MacDonald for Brentford struck a phenomenal goal in the 8^th minute to try and regain some possession in the game.

Jay Emmanuel-Thomas played a nice pass to Steve Morison who calmly slotted in a right footed shot into the bottom right corner in the 24^th minute of the game.

In the 63^rd Minute, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas received a pass from Craig, and then smashed the ball into the far corner for his first goal for Millwall.

With Millwall through to the 2^nd round of the League Cup, we expected a big club in the next round. The draw was made after the first round of games were completed, and we got West Brom in the next round away from home, which was going to be a very big game for the club.

Next game, was the first home game of the season, with us hosting Carlisle.

With us playing our first home game of the season, I didn’t want to lose this one as we had a good run of form going with us winning 2 games in a row including 1 against Southampton and if we lost, we would lose confidence and start losing more and more games and lose our hope for promotion.

In the 3^rd minute, Darren Ward got his head on the end of a David Martin corner, and fired it into the top left corner of the goal.

The early goal kept us in the game as it was all Carlisle in the 2^nd half of the match. With us winning 2 out of 2 matches in the league, we sat in 2^nd position behind Colchester who have also won both games. We are the only 2 teams in the league to have done so.

The game after this was against Oldham at the Den.

Hoping to continue the good form, we needed to win. I kept playing a strong side, the same side I played against Carlisle and Southampton.

A very wary start from Millwall left me wandering if I should play more attacking during games. We had 2 shots against us in the first 8 minutes, luckily none of them going in.

After I made the team play more attacking, in the 29^th minute, Craig played a fantastic ball through the middle of the Oldham defence, which then Steve Morison ran on to and placed the ball in the near corner to make it 1-0.

Our 1-0 win kept our 100% record in the league so far but Colchester had also won there 3 games in the league so we were stuck in 2^nd place by goal difference.

Next game was at Roots Hall, home of Southend.

Playing away to Southend was quite a big game for us. With Colchester not having a game on this day, we needed just a point to go top of the league, but they would have a game in hand. I wanted to win this one, just like I wanted to win every other game.

We went down 1-0 to a nice Matthew Paterson goal in the 23^rd minute but just 2 minutes later, Jason Price, latched on the end of a David Martin cross, and headed the ball into the near corner.

Earlier in the game, John Sullivan, my keeper, sustained a broken wrist, and is out for 4 weeks. In the 33^rd minute, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas got an injury and is out for 2 weeks.

With us drawing in this match, we go top of the league by 1 point but Colchester have a game in hand.

I decided to field a slightly weaker team in this match as I knew it would be a hard one, and one we were unlikely to win.

Graham Dorrans, struck a nice curled shot, into the bottom far corner, to put West Brom up 1-0 at the break. In the last minute, Abdoulaye Meite, scored a tap-in from 2 yards after Millwall keeper spilled a Dorrans shot.

With Millwall losing out in the 2^nd round of the league cup, we had more focus on the league now, but we were still in 2 other cups. Darren Ward was our best player in the match.

Hoping to keep up the good run in the league, I fielded the same side I did against Southampton on the first game of the season. With the match being played at the Den, I knew I had a good chance of winning.

My Millwall side started off well with Neil Harris, slotting home a close range shot, being assisted by Steve Morison. Later in the game, Liam Dickinson scored a late equaliser to keep Brighton in the game. Luckily, Darren Ward scored a header from a David Martin corner to give us the 3 points we really needed from that game.

With this result, Millwall still sit top of the league by 1 point ahead of Colchester but still, they have a game in hand.

With Millwall having a solid first month to the season, my hopes of promotion is still alive. Neil Harris, Steve Morison and David Martin being the star players of this month. Next post will be sent soon.