Saturday, July 25

Stevenage Borough-Millwall 1 - 2


Steve Morison made it a happy return to former club Stevenage Borough as he bagged a brace to maintain Millwall's 100 per cent winning pre-season record with a hard-fought win.
Striker Morison, who joined The Lions at the end of May, took just 62 seconds to score his first goal in a Lions shirt, thumping home a crisp right-foot shot from 12 yards after picking up Gary Alexander's deft flick-on.
Millwall enjoyed a mini period of sustained pressure around the 10-minute mark when Chris Hackkett delivered three corners in succession.
At the other end, the roles were reversed nine minutes later when the home side forced a trio of corners of their own to test Millwall, but both were dealt with comfortably by the visiting defence.
Morsion glanced a header wide from Dave Martin's left wing cross on 21 minutes but within seconds Boro were handed a golden opportunity to level when Lawrie Wilson was caught by Scott Barron just inside the area.
Mitchell Cole stepped up and sent keeper David Forde the wrong with the resulting penalty, firing low into the bottom left-hand corner for the equaliser.
The Lions were denied a second goal 14 minutes before the break with the best move of the half; Scott Barron slipped the ball down the line to Martin, he in turn provided an inviting cross that Morison met at the far post, only for keeper Chris Day to smother his header on the line.
Stevenage went close too on 38 minutes, but former Lion Michael Bostwick's diving header flew a foot over the bar from Boro's fifth corner of the half.
Martin saw his rasping left-footer swerve narrowly off target from 20-yards with the last chance of the opening 45 minutes as the teams went in level at the break.
Kenny Jackett's side created a decent opening eight minutes after the restart, only for Jimmy Abdou to drag his effort wide of the target having been put through by Hackett.
Morison then sliced the home defence open with an intelligent 60th-minute pass that found Martin in space on the left. The winger cut into the danger zone, was put under pressure and chipped narrowly over the bar.
But it didn't take Millwall to add a second goal on 63 minutes, courtesy of Morison's perfectly-weighted chip following good approach play by Abdou and Adam Bolder.
Morison showed some nice touches throughout, and nearly produced a third goal for sub Neil Harris when he picked out Chopper at the far post, only for Chopper to to thwarted by keeper Chris Day in the home goal.
The Lions continued to press in search of a third goal with Chopper glancing over from a Hackett delivery on the right .
Boro responded with their best spell of attacking play in the final quarter of an hour. Charlie Griffin's snap shot was smartly held by Forde before The Lions keeper was called into action again nine minutes from time.
On this occasion he produced a flying save to deny sub David Bridges after Lawrie Wilson's initial free-kick from a central position had been blocked by the wall with what proved to be the final noteworthy goalmouth action of a another good work-out for Jackett's side.

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