Mark Beevers: Millwall move was one of my best-ever career decisions
When Mark Beevers first joined Millwall he viewed it as on the most transient of arrangements. But it ended up being a move which saw him play 150 matches for the Lions, score on one of two visits to Wembley as well as enduring the heartbreak of relegation.
The 32-year-old centre-back, now at Peterborough, could be set to face his old club tomorrow. And Beevers, on 553 career appearances, has plenty of treasured memories from his stint in Bermondsey. He admits the offer of a 28-day loan move to SE16 in October 2012 came as “a bit of a shock”.
“I was playing at Sheffield Wednesday at the time and we’d just been promoted to the Championship,” Beevers told the South London Press.
“But Anthony Gardner had just got back fit. I got a phonecall on the Thursday evening from the assistant manager and he said: ‘Kenny Jackett at Millwall has come in for you, do you want to go on loan?’
“I can remember I was sitting playing on my Xbox at the time, I would’ve been 21 or 22, and I said: ‘Yeah, 100 per cent. It’s a good level – the Championship and a good club as well’.
“I drove down that night, trained with the boys on Friday and then played against Bolton [a 2-1 win] on the Saturday. It was a snap decision. I just wanted to play football.
“Millwall had a few injuries at the time. I hit the ground running.”
It’s fairly topical, considering Monday’s FA Cup third round draw paired Millwall with Crystal Palace, that his second match was at Selhurst Park.
The Lions were trailing 2-0 before Dean Moxey was sent off for handling in the box, Liam Trotter converting the spot-kick, then Beevers bundled home a Josh Wright corner.
“I didn’t realise how big that derby was, being from up north,” said Barnsley-born Beevers. “I remember the goal really well. I expertly put it in the top corner with my knee!
“I forget who was marking me but they went to ground quite easily and it was one of those instinct things. It went top corner.
“The loan got extended another 28 days and then it came to crunch time because Sheff Wed got an injury and asked me to be recalled. But we were doing so well, in the top six, and I didn’t want to go back.
“Kenny wanted me to stay. There were calls between the agents and the clubs and it got finalised pretty quickly.
“At the time I had no kids, it was just me and my missus. I became good pals with Chris Taylor down at Millwall, that helped as well – two Northern lads sticking together.
“Big Dan Shittu played alongside me in my first game. He is a man mountain and has just got a presence about him. We gelled. I’m younger than Dan and he used to joke around saying: ‘You can do my running for me’. It ended up being the case.
“I wouldn’t say the fact we had such a good group of lads swayed my decision – but it helped. I warmed to the fans really quickly. It was a different environment.
“When I think back about the lads and the club it was no-brainer to move down. Millwall was one of the highlights of my career.
“We had a good spine of the team. Fordey [David Forde] is Fordey. Then you had me, Danny, Trots [Liam Trotter], Jimmy [Abdou] and Woody [Chris Wood] up top. On the wings we had James Henry and Chris Taylor, who were both in form at the time.”
Millwall were sixth in the 2012-13 season after 22 matches and firmly in the play-off hunt. But then Wood, on loan from West Bromwich Albion, was recalled at the end of December. He had scored 11 goals in 19 matches. Both Millwall and Leicester had bids accepted for the Kiwi forward, but he chose the Foxes. The Lions only won five league games in the second part of the campaign and lost six of their final eight.
“If we’d kept hold of Woody then we’d have had a really, really good chance,” said Beevers. “We genuinely believed we were going to win every game.
“We weren’t a one-man team but he was a big loss for us. His hold-up play and goals contributed massively to us getting results. It’s tough to get to the Premier League.
“Hendo [Darius Henderson] left that season too. I think we were a bit bare up top after that and might only have had Andy Keogh and Jon Marquis. Goals change games.
“We dried up on goals, hence the reason we spiralled down the league a little bit. It was still a thoroughly enjoyable season – we played in the FA Cup semi-final that year as well. We had one helluva cup run, beating Villa at home and Blackburn away.
“I felt like Wigan [eventual winners] were there for the taking if we’d had one or two more strikers within the squad. That’s no dig at the recruitment, it just happened like that. Woody went on to do good things and Hendo went to Forest.
“We stayed in the league on the last day of the season. Derby beat us but results went our way.”
Beevers’ final season in the blue of Millwall was the 2015-16 one. He played 53 times and scored in the League One play-off final, only for Barnsley to emerge 3-1 victors. Beevers rejected a new contract and instead joined Bolton on a free transfer.
“The decision was purely family-based – wanting to get back home and around the family,” he explained. “I had my little girl, she was born in Bromley the season before that.
“It was nothing to do with the club itself because I absolutely loved my last season at Millwall.”
Falling at the last hurdle against the Tykes still massively smarted despite the fact Beevers’ future lay away from The Den outfit.
“We got through the semis in dramatic fashion – beating Bradford 3-1 away,” said Beevers. “We had quite a comfortable cushion after that win in the first leg.
“To get to a grand finale and then lose is probably the biggest suckerpunch in football. Barnsley were the form team, they had been bottom at Christmas and snuck into sixth place. They were hot and had smashed Walsall in the semis. We couldn’t have got off to a worst start before the game with Webs [Byron Webster] getting injured.
“Webs is one of my good pals, I saw him on Tuesday. We had a settled back four but then Mahlon [Romeo] was suspended because he got sent off [in the final regulation fixture of the season]
“So we lost two players and one of those was in the warm-up. It was nothing against TC [Tony Craig], who was the one who came in, because he’s had a great career and is a legend at Millwall. But when Webs drops out with a hamstring injury you think ‘this is not meant to happen’.“We couldn’t have got off to a worse start – 2-0 down after 20 minutes.”
Millwall clawed their way back into the contest in that first period. Beevers used his strength to hold off Marc Roberts, swivelling on a miscued Craig shot to slam the ball home.
“It’s not so much a highlight in terms of result but I’ve watched that goal back so many times,” said Beevers. “One of the things that makes it is scoring in front of the Millwall fans.
“That roar was just a joke. It’s one of the best feelings I’ve had. It was only 2-1, I’ve only pulled a goal back, but that end was rammed.
“I couldn’t help but celebrate the way I did.
“We had a couple of chances to make it 2-2 before it went to 3-1. That put the final nail in the coffin.
“It was a good season but to have it capped off with a loss – and to watch them lift the trophy and then watch them playing Championship football next season – that was not nice at all.
“That’s football. There has to be a loser and the start killed us. You just can’t do that in a final because then you’re playing catch up.”
Beevers might have a soft spot for Millwall but that doesn’t mean he will go easy on them tomorrow at the ABAX Stadium.
The Posh are five points adrift of safety but arguably it is poor results on the road that have hampered their hopes of consolidating following promotion in May.
“The results have not reflected some of the games at home,” said Beevers. “We got done 1-0 by Fulham and should have got something out of that. West Brom scored a 94th-minute winner.
“We’ve had the likes of Bournemouth come down and we got a 0-0 with them. These are teams fancied to be at the top end of the Champ and we’ve really competed with them.
“It’s always been tough playing against Millwall. Whichever manager has been in charge they have always recruited players who are hard-working and with quality on top of that as well.”
