Millwall 2 Hull 2 – Lions dominate at Den but can’t translate that into victory

BY RICHARD CAWLEY

Millwall were left frustrated as they failed to turn their dominance into a Den win.

The Lions controlled large swathes of today’s match against Hull City but once again were unable to see out a lead in the closing stages as Markus Henriksen headed home with 17 minutes remaining.

Up until then, the South Londoners looked safely on course to end their five-game Championship wait for a victory.

Despite Kamil Grosicki’s seventh-minute opener they responded in good fashion and goals from Lee Gregory and Aiden O’Brien had turned the contest around.

The Lions looked uncertain defensively in the early exchanges and Jordan Archer caused palpitations as his early low pass out was nearly seized upon by Fraizer Campbell.

And soon after the visitors had an early lead as Grosicki was picked out in the box and slammed his shot inside the right post.

Millwall reacted well to the setback, building up a sustained period of pressure. But they had not troubled keeper David Marshall until a well-worked equaliser on 22 minutes.

James Meredith played a one-two with Aiden O’Brien, his cheeky flick opening up space for the left-back to find Gregory at the back post – the striker heading home.

It was Gregory’s eighth goal of the season and ended just over a month since he had last netted. He is on 72 in his Millwall career.

Steve Morison produced a peach of a pass to pick out Mahlon Romeo on the right of the box – using Jed Wallace’s burst down the right as a decoy. But the right-back could only drive straight at Marshall.

Jake Cooper has been a huge threat from set-pieces but could not get his header on target from a Wallace corner kick. The delivery was slightly behind the big centre-back, who was forced to twist his head to make any kind of connection and it went comfortably wide.

Millwall came back out with real intent and could easily have gone ahead before O’Brien’s goal.

Jordy De Wijs made a vital block on Wallace’s shot from O’Brien’s pull back. 

Then O’Brien’s cross agonisingly failed to get a clean connection as it flashed across the penalty area.

But Millwall made it 2-1 on 54 minutes. Morison did excellently to hold off a marker and slipped the ball to O’Brien, the Republic of Ireland international driving sweetly home from 20 yards out.

The Lions had been in almost total control but Hull levelled on 74 minutes. Jarrod Bowen’s corner was initially won in the air by De Wijs and Henriksen was first to the second header to make it 2-2.