Millwall 1-1 West Bromwich Albion: Joe Bryan own goal earns point for Baggies

Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Millwall and West Bromwich Albion at The Den on Saturday; Joe Bryan own goal cancels out Jake Cooper opener and earns a point for the Baggies.

Saturday 15 February 2025 18:44, UK

Joe Bryan scored his second own goal of the week as Millwall were held to a 1-1 draw against Sky Bet Championship play-off chasers West Brom.

Bryan had put through his own net to open the scoring in the Lions' 5-1 thrashing at Plymouth on Wednesday night and his latest unfortunate moment cancelled out Jake Cooper's opener.

Sixth-placed West Brom found themselves under severe pressure in the closing stages at The Den, but held on for a draw that puts them one point clear of nearest challengers Coventry in the race for the play-offs.

Following a 15-minute delay to kick-off due to travel congestion, West Brom almost took the lead with 58 seconds played when Adam Armstrong's shot from the edge of the area needed saving by Millwall goalkeeper Lukas Jensen.

The hosts' first opportunity came after six minutes when Bryan's ball from the left ran for Casper De Norre, who set himself before bending wide from just outside the box.

The Lions had begun to control proceedings and came close again when Femi Azeez drove a shot across goal that went just wide of the far post.

A deserved breakthrough then came Millwall's way in the 19th minute when Azeez's cross from the right found Cooper in the area and the skipper found the net with a towering header.

However, West Brom were level seven minutes later when Darnell Furlong's low cross came off Bryan and trickled into the bottom corner.

The Baggies almost completed a rapid turnaround when Grady Diangana was allowed to cut inside and get a shot away that ricocheted off a defender onto the underside of the crossbar.

It was all-square at half-time with the visitors on top, but Millwall were the team who began the second half the stronger.

Cooper almost put them in front for the second time eight minutes after the restart when his back-post header from Bryan's corner was tipped over by West Brom goalkeeper Joe Wildsmith.

From the resulting corner, again taken by Bryan, Japhet Tanganga produced a good header that produced an even better save by Wildsmith, with the rebound not quite running for Aaron Connolly.

An entertaining match then entered its first lull of the afternoon, which was eventually broken by Millwall substitute Camiel Neghli tamely heading Tristan Crama's cross at Wildsmith.

The Lions continued to press for a winner, with Neghli having another chance with seven minutes remaining when Wildsmith needed to push his rising effort over.

Wildsmith's heart would have momentarily been in his mouth in the 87th minute when he fumbled another shot from Neghli, but he was up quickly to prevent Luke Cundle putting in the loose ball.

The managers

Millwall's Alex Neil:

"I thought we started the game really well, I thought we deserved our goal, but there was just that five-minute spell.

"It starts with a free-kick we put straight in the keeper's hands, they break down the right, we don't cover the space which we should do and we end up bundling the ball into our own net.

"You could probably see there was a little bit of a lack of confidence at that point - the crowd started to groan a little bit in the fact that they see what we see, which is 'what have you just done?'

"You've let the game drift when you don't need to, so that was the frustration.

"I asked them to go out second half and make sure we try and fix it and try and play as well as you did do for large parts of the first half, and I thought they did and probably even more."

West Brom's Tony Mowbray:

"We've got John Swift, we've got Jed Wallace, we've got Adam Armstrong and we've got some really talented footballers - we didn't play Mikey Johnston, Tom Fellows came on today.

"They are exceptionally talented individuals who are very good with the ball, (but) sometimes you come here and you get dragged into a fight because if you don't fight, you're going to get beat.

"Sometimes you can become overly engrossed in that competitive edge of a game and you forget to play the game that you should be playing.

"I've said that to the team, but I'm happy we didn't lose a football match we could easily have lost because of their intensity and the crowd gets wrapped up in the game.

"It's very tough to come here but I do believe, moving forward, with the players that we've got we should be able to come here and dominate more, and they'll be happy to take a point because they didn't get much of a kick."