Saints 2-3 Millwall
Saints took on Millwall with a Cup line up: the strongest available defence in front of Bialkowski, Chaplow making a welcome return in a much changed midfield and an East meets West partnership of Lee and Do Prado up front. It didn’t really work as planned, and for the second time in this extended tie, Bialkowski was motionless when the Lions scored: with his previous tormentor, Henderson, omitted, this time it was through Trotter.
The visitors might have scored a second when Mason wasted the sort of chance that Saints would have liked at the other end, but a change of tactics bringing Do Prado deeper soon began to produce results. Lallana grabbed an equaliser, and then things really started to happen, with DeRidder failing to make the most of a promising position and Forde saving Guly’s header.
The referee played an inadvertent part in setting up a Saints break but Lee failed to find the target as the game continued its eventful way after the interval, including a Lallana free kick that struck the bar and Bialkowski making a string of fine saves.
Do Prado made way for Lambert to prevent a second booking, and Chaplow had enough after 60 minutes. This introduced Reeves who produced a very confident display, but it was the other sub, Lambert, who shot Saints ahead with 13 minutes left. Time to start printing the Bolton tickets you’d have thought, but Henry darted past Martin, who had stopped concentrating, and N’Guessan headed the cross past Bartie.
Reeves was the next to find the net, but his celebrations were halted by an early offside flag and less than 8,500 fans prepared for an extra 30 minutes in the cold. As it was, we went home early when Fonte committed a foul in his opponents’ half and Millwall moved the ball quickly towards Feeney. The visitors’ sub had struck the woodwork when starting in the first game but this time he curled a shot just inside the post, leaving stuttering Saints to concentrate on the League.
LSSC Man of the Match: Adam Lallana, although it was Lambert off the bench who supplied the real class up front.
21 Bialkowski
02 Richardson
03 Harding
06 Fonte
16 Martin
10 Guly (Lambert – 54′ )
14 Hammond
18 Chaplow (Reeves – 60′ )
20 Lallana
33 De Ridder (Barnard – 77′ )
19 Lee
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