Millwall 2 Leicester City 3: Cannon blasts us past the cartoon villains
Ah, Millwall away - a fixture that’s always had a cartoonish quality for me.
Because of the time my mate turned up in central London kitted out in a bright pink jumper only to mistakenly board one of the train coaches designated for home fans down to South Bermondsey.
Because of the time we were held in for an hour after the final whistle and could hear the Millwall fans the other side of the railway tracks chanting "Let them out, let them out".
Because of the time we got back to London Bridge after a victory one year and a pot-bellied, 50-something skinhead was giving me a death stare while walking along the other side of a police cordon and I was chuckling away at him... until we got to the end of the cordon and Millwall's finest merged in with us.
But we didn’t find our mate’s pink jumper tattered and torn on the platform amid a pile of bones, there was nobody waiting for us when we got out and I survived to tell the tale of the death stare - albeit after a quickening of pace and a leap onto the tube.
We didn’t get many cartoon villains on this visit. The entire upper tiers of the Dockers Stand and Cold Blow Lane were closed, which meant it didn’t get particularly intimidating. Just as well, because we did have one or two throw-ins to take.
Young guns
Enzo Maresca fielded an extremely young team with Academy products making up one-third of the matchday squad. All six got minutes: there were starts for Jakub Stolarczyk, Ben Nelson and Wanya Marcal, a substitute appearance for Tawanda Maswanhise, and - at the far more established end of the spectrum - Hamza Choudhury was joined in midfield during the second half by Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
It was a perfect learning experience for a young player. In the first half, there were numerous occasions when Stolarczyk had few options in possession and played something of a hospital pass to Nelson in the right-back position. This is what Enzo wants though, and this is what is getting us results overall.
Centre-back is probably the hardest position to come into as a youngster, particularly when it involves going out to right-back and receiving passes when being pressed by multiple opponents. By the end, Nelson had grown in confidence and authority to the point where he was defending on the front foot and stepping in front of Millwall attackers to win the ball and relieve the pressure.
You get the feeling Enzo knows the importance of the strand from, in some cases, supporting the club as a youngster, through Seagrave to the first team in creating a connection with fans. And for their part, young players must feel they will get opportunities if they do the right things. It benefits Leicester City if our most promising players have a clear identity to grow into, and know they have to fit into the Enzo way to succeed at the club.
Even with so many changes and fresh faces, there was never a chance the Enzo way would be abandoned - even for Millwall away. There were a few rocky moments here, but one major theme of the season so far is that no matter how far under the cosh we appear to be at times, just when you’re on the verge of thinking we have to adapt or compromise… we score.
Millwall started brightly. Duncan Watmore, in particular, found channels in between Callum Doyle, who looked sporadically uncomfortable making his first start since a long injury lay-off, and Conor Coady. But Championship teams aren’t exactly clinical from half a season’s worth of evidence and Millwall wasted a succession of chances before Leicester decided to spring into life.
Midfield marksmen
When it came, the goal showcased Cesare Casadei’s threat - timely, given we’re currently looking at three months’ worth of the Italian in place of the sidelined Wilfred Ndidi. Casadei can frustrate but he also offers a physical presence that feels very Championship. The Millwall defence decided to give Marc Albrighton, of all people, the freedom of south east London to deliver a cross to the back post. Casadei powered home the header and just like that, despite looking wide open at the back, Leicester hit the front.
Lots of us still have concerns over a midfield pairing of Yunus and Casadei. Here, Ricardo pushed forward to join Casadei and free Yunus a little in the setup Maresca seems to favour against weaker teams. The idea was perhaps harsh, or risky, faced with a Millwall side in good form - but the gamble paid off when all three combined for the second goal.
Ricardo is so obviously having a gap year, a Premier League player enjoying a jolly old time against Championship opposition each week and after his injury woes, who can blame him? He’s always a popular goalscorer and with every passing week helping to lead this club back to its former glory, cements himself more and more as a Leicester legend.
Another recently-anointed leader within the squad, Hamza Choudhury, recovered from a slow start to become a man-of-the-match contender by the end, and his influence helped wrestle back control of the midfield.
Nevertheless, a Millwall goal from a set piece was inevitable. Their first (spoiler alert) arrived ten minutes into the second half, by which time we’d already endured our traditionally slow start after the break.
The concessions from corners, free kicks and throw-ins must be a concern for Maresca, as we’re beginning to get back to the kind of situation we had a couple of years ago. At least then we conceded other types of goals as well. These days the strength of the defensive setup in open play means almost every goal we concede is from a set piece, and it could begin to get in the players’ heads.
TC = top class
But back to the main theme: rope-a-doping teams into thinking they can compete with us, and then dispensing with them. Most of our players had been giving the ball away in poor areas, but Callum Doyle was the chief culprit as we approached the hour mark.
So, in true Leicester style, just when replacing him with Faes looked like the smart move, Doyle played one of the passes of the season to create our third goal.
Tom Cannon still had a lot to do, but he did it with just two touches. The first one, which brilliantly took the ball away from the advancing keeper, demanded repeat viewing even more than the finish, a decisive strike from the angle.
There are murmurs already about Cannon. We shouldn’t get carried away, but it’s difficult when he’s producing such Vardy-esque excellence this early in his time with us. He just looks the real deal - a player who combines the strength, aerial ability, pace and workrate you need from an all-round striker and, most importantly, can finish.
If he’d gone on to score the two or three he arguably should have at The Den, we would have been getting very carried away. But, in a gift for the greater good, he didn’t. A good save or two from Sarkic in the Millwall goal meant Cannon’s goal return remained at one.
He wasn’t the only one who should have scored in the second half - Leicester wasted chance after chance. Albrighton put a follow-up straight at Sarkic, Yunus curled wide after a tasty one-two with Ricardo, Wanya Marcal could have capped a glorious move but instead fell over, Casadei wasted several good openings and even Dewsbury-Hall lacked conviction on the break.
Cannon was also denied a clear penalty for a push in the back when through on goal, something that didn’t cost us thankfully in the way exactly the same officiating howler did at Portman Road.
It could have been 7-1 by the time Millwall scored their… yep, you’ve guessed it… second set piece goal of the afternoon.
This one was particularly ridiculous even by Leicester standards - a free man on the penalty spot sweeping the ball first time into the far corner while our entire team threw their arms up in the air as if to ask what on earth they could have done about it. Erm… mark up, lads?
In the end, despite one decent headed chance for Tom Bradshaw from a free kick, Leicester clung on and we watched as Millwall veered off the cliff and out of the FA Cup.
