Att: :17,700ish
Wright managed to set the tone of this match by describing the Millwall fans as racist. The of course reacted quiet angrily to this but then they react quiet angrily to anything. Hillier replaced Selley in midfield and Smith replaced Campbell up front. Linighan continued with Bould at the back. Millwall nearly took the lead in the opening minute when Mitchell's header forced Seaman to push out one handed. Luckily Winterburn tidied up to knock the ball for a corner. The next twenty minutes or so was more notable for some horrific refereeing than anything else. Parlour was blatantly elbowed in the face on the touch line right under the linesman nose and no card was shown, whereas Bould mearly touched a man to get himself booked. We then had a spell of pressure from which we should have taken the lead. Bould flicked on a corner the fell neatly to Wright whose lofted shot under up in the stand. Schwartz then had a fine strike from a free-kick that was deflected neatly into the top corner. Keller amade a fine tip over. ANother piece of Wright oportunism saw Keller save well though Wrighty never really caught hold of his shot from about eight yards out in the middle of the goal. THe defence were at this stage holding Millwall pretty comfortable. THe last ten minutes of the first half, however saw Millwall press forward with the ever threatening Mitchell causing many problems. The second half was a much more scrappy affair. Wright had our best chance when he just failed to divert a free far post header inside the post. Not an easy chance as he was being challenged as he ran in. Millwall continued to have more of the possession but failed to really trouble Seaman. Their best chance fell with a few minutes to go when an angled run on goal was woefully shot wide. Campbell replaced the injured again Alan Smith and Keown came on for Jensen as George had clearly decided on the draw. We could have won the game in the last few seconds when Wright was put away down the right hand side. Only a decent cross was needed to prevent Campbell with an open goal but Wright's cross was far from decent. Linighan and Hillier were about the best of our lot. I don't think this tie is over yet though and a decision on penalties wouldn't surprise me. At least the draw and the far better organised policing prevented the chaos after last years meeting. I beleive 300 were arrested near a pub somewhere but all rather low key for a Millwall fixture.
Report by Trevor Collins