Millwall vs Birmingham City. Sky Bet Championship.
The DenAttendance17,008.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Millwall and Birmingham City at The Den on Saturday | Japhet Tanganga scores 90th-minute winner as Lions secure third victory in four under Neil Harris
Saturday 9 March 2024 18:30, UK
Japhet Tanganga headed in a 90th-minute winner as Millwall snatched a vital 1-0 victory over fellow Sky Bet Championship strugglers Birmingham.
The Lions have won three of their four games since Neil Harris returned to the club for a second spell as manager, although they had to withstand some heavy pressure from the Blues in the second half at The Den.
But a dogged display was eventually rewarded as Millwall opened up a five-point gap between themselves and the relegation zone and left Birmingham still just one point above the bottom three.
Millwall had the game's first big chance in the 11th minute when George Honeyman played a one-two with Duncan Watmore to go through on goal, but his attempted dinked finish was blocked by John Ruddy.
It came in the middle of a good spell for the Lions, with the Birmingham goalkeeper and captain again coming to his side's rescue when he clawed away an effort from opposing skipper Jake Cooper.
Ruddy was fortunate, however, when he was beaten to the ball, following a ricochet off Michael Obafemi, by Watmore whose header dropped comfortably wide.
Another Birmingham header then went unpunished when a loose headed clearance by Marc Roberts dropped for Zian Flemming, who could only shoot tamely at Ruddy from outside the area.
It took the Blues 41 minutes to muster a chance of their own when Koji Miyoshi's through ball played in Jay Stansfield and his shot from a tricky angle needed tipping away by Matija Sarkic.
Another opening for the visitors quickly followed when Alex Pritchard sent an effort wide from just outside the box as neither team could break the deadlock before half-time.
Having finally played themselves into the game towards the end of the first half, it was Birmingham who had the first opening after the restart as Lee Buchanan sent a rising shot wide.
Another good opportunity for Stansfield then came and went when he shot wide from inside the area after his initial shot from Juninho Bacuna's cross had been blocked.
The Blues were then left furious when they weren't awarded a penalty in the 63rd minute when Stansfield appeared to be held back from Bacuna's corner by Millwall's Joe Bryan.
The visitors continued to dominate the second-half proceedings, with Stansfield shooting off-target again from a presentable shooting position.
From nowhere, Millwall found a second wind and finally had another chance of their own when Flemming's long throw ran for George Saville, who headed over with 15 minutes remaining.
Just when it looked as though the match would end in stalemate, the Lions snatched all three points when Tanganga rose to head in Saville's corner and spark wild celebrations from the home supporters.
Millwall's Neil Harris:
"Japh's got great pedigree, he's got a great CV in terms of games at the top level and playing in Europe, and things like that.
"It's slightly different here for a centre-half and sometimes you have to be a different player here, and the reason I'm at the football club is to try and teach the players what a Millwall player looks like, whether that's a goalkeeper or a centre-half or a centre-forward.
"All I said to Japh was - not complicated his game - just to make your decisions and I'll support you, but you can be as aggressive as you like.
"A couple of his tackles were a little bit dubious here against Watford and away at Southampton in the first five minutes, but he shows that he's buying into it.
"Ultimately, he's headed the ball a lot (in both boxes) and to be a good Millwall centre-half you have to do that."
Birmingham's Mark Venus:
"I don't want to sit here and pick holes in officials. They are what they are in this country and I'm sure everyone has their own opinion of them.
"Everyone has their own opinion of what happened, the incident, and they can make their own mind up.
"I think in the second half we got on top. I think in the first half we were too timid, we didn't influence, we didn't hurt their goal enough and I think in the second half we had a lot more purpose, more intensity.
"We took the game to them and we had some opportunities to hit the target, to score, to shoot, and we squandered them, really.
"I think they've got the stomach for the fight - they showed that in the second half.
"I think they just have to learn to do the basics a bit better and learn to make the right decisions."
