Millwall vs Bristol City. Sky Bet Championship.
The DenAttendance16,081.
Saturday 7 April 2018 19:18, UK
Millwall continued their unlikely charge towards the play-offs with a 2-0 win over Bristol City at the Den.
Jed Wallace opened the scoring with a sumptuous curling strike before Steve Morison added a second shortly after half-time.
In the end the margin could have been wider as Neil Harris' men extended their unbeaten run to 15 games and just a point outside the top six.
Bristol City actually started the brighter, Bobby Reid looking dangerous inside 30 seconds and winning a free-kick in a dangerous area. But when Joe Bryan's set-piece hit the wall few would have imagined it would be the visitors' best moment of the first half.
Lee Johnson's side dominated possession, but could find no way through a dogged Millwall side who have not lost at home since November and have now conceded only three times in their last seven games at the Den.
Neil Harris' side were happy to sit back and absorb pressure, but when they did attack they looked the more threatening team, and were rewarded by a moment of magic from Wallace.
Ben Marshall and James Meredith worked the ball well down the left before the former slipped a pass through the static Bristol City defence to find Wallace on the corner of the box. There was still plenty to do, but the winger did it brilliantly, looking up and curling a stunning strike over the despairing dive of Frank Fielding to dip into the top corner of the net.
Neither side created much else before the break, although Wallace was a constant threat down the right, and both he and Shaun Williams forced Fielding into saves from range.
City went close soon after half-time, Bryan's 40-yard free kick only just evading Eros Pisano at the far post.
But moments later they were punished for that miss, Millwall's front two combining to double the home side's lead. Lee Gregory took advantage of some poor defending to stretch the back line, then found Morison with a brilliant backheel and the Lions captain did the rest, finishing emphatically.
It should have been three a few seconds later, as Wallace raced down the left, crossed, and first Gregory, then Morison and finally George Saville were denied from inside the six-yard box.
City continued to push forward but failed to force Jordan Archer into a single save, although Marlon Pack headed narrowly over late on. At the other end Morison had a header cleared off the line and Shaun Williams nodded wide when unmarked.
Neil Harris: "We've got ourselves into a really good position, but it's a different feeling for us. It's not like Middlesbrough, Derby, Brentford - they think they should be in the play-offs. They expect to be in there - Villa fans expect them to win the play-offs, Fulham fans too.
"We don't expect it, we don't expect anything. All I expect is a work ethic. But if we do get in there, we'll be a tough team to stop in the play-offs."
Lee Johnson: "They controlled the game out of possession. The possession stat will be in our favour but that means nothing. The position we're in, everything is about getting the result. We failed to have the bottle really, to provide the action that counted.
"There's no excuses. We haven't shown the Bristol City badge enough respect in the last four or five weeks. I said to the players, you can believe all the noise you like after the Manchester City and United games, it's all a load of rubbish. None of it's true, it's all propaganda."
