Millwall vs Nottingham Forest. Sky Bet Championship.
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Friday 30 March 2018 17:41, UK
Millwall maintained the pursuit of the Championship's play-offs with a convincing 2-0 victory over Nottingham Forest in which they needed only 29 seconds to take the lead.
Shaun Williams' header was followed by Lee Gregory's 10th goal of the season putting Neil Harris' team in full control, extending their unbeaten run to 13 league matches. The victory keeps them in touch with the top six as the season enters its final stages.
Aitor Karanka's Forest have won only three from the games 14 they have played since his appointment. However, they have gone unbeaten in their past seven and remain a safe distance above the bottom three, even if a top-half finish appears beyond their reach.
It was a fast start again - Millwall have scored inside the opening minute in three of their past four league games.
Fine footwork from the impressive Ben Marshall created room for him to cross from the left wing to Williams, who met the ball on the edge of the six-yard box with a powerful header that flew beyond Costel Pantilimon and in.
Apostolos Vellios struck just wide of the right post with an ambitious, 35-yard strike that stretched the diving Jordan Archer, before another delivery from Marshall in the 33rd minute led to Millwall doubling their lead.
He found Steve Morison with another left-wing cross, who from the edge of the area nodded the ball back towards Gregory in front of goal. He calmly controlled and finished low.
Forest's best chance of staging a comeback was wasted when, after Archer had parried Ben Osborne's 25-yard strike straight to Vellios, the striker shot over the crossbar despite a near-open goal.
Neil Harris: "The play-offs are a reality. We've had to work long and hard in this unbeaten run. It's 13 games league games unbeaten since New Year's Day, but we've still got seven more to go. What we've achieved so far has been miraculous, but I want more - I've told them that.
"It helps having no pressure on us, we roll on to the next one. Straight after the game, it's 'Monday now, let's go and beat Ipswich'. That's the focus of the group. The players and the dressing room's driving it. You can see the spirit; the players laughing and joking during the game, and that's fine in top teams as long as they do both sides of the game."
Aitor Karanka: "We've been working for two weeks and knew Millwall played aggressively with long balls, crosses and second balls. We let them play long balls, cross the ball twice, so I'm disappointed. We started to build for next season a month-and-a-half ago. If someone thinks we are playing for nothing this seven games it's completely wrong.
"I will keep trying things, because it's my responsibility. We will have games like QPR where we score five goals, and games like this when we have chances and don't score."
