Millwall v Swansea

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Millwall v Swansea Sun 4 Jan 15:00
After the fourth consecutive home win against the cloggers of WBA, with the wonder goal by sub Jay Fulton separating the sides, we move into the final match of a crammed holiday period of games.
With only seventy hours between that last match on Thursday afternoon and this next one, those hours include a mandatory recovery day on Friday, then light training on Saturday morning before travelling 200 miles to South London, adjacent to the Isle of Dogs, Saturday afternoon and staying overnight before the match against Millwall on Sunday afternoon.
Fortunately there is a clear week next week before the FA Cup tie.
We have some injury issues with Idah out with a hamstring injury for seven months, Cullen out for three weeks with a calf problem, Key with an ankle injury and Ronald with a foot injury and Galbraith struggling with a hamstring twinge.
Benson is back from the AFCON games after his team were knocked out and Cooper is back from his loan.
Always a tough place to go Millwall will not be an easy place to get points, but we go there full of confidence albeit with an injury depleted squad.

[Estoban]

No idea what sort of player selection or formation we’ll play this afternoon with all the injuries. With rumours of at least two loan players returning to their parent clubs due to lack of game time we have to hope it’s only the failures that go not the good ones, you know who they are.

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4-2-3-1
Swans: Lawrence Vigouroux, Ethan Galbraith, Ben Cabango (c), Cameron Burgess, Ishe Samuels-Smith, Jay Fulton, Goncalo Franco, Malick Yalcouye, Ronald, Jisung Eom, Zan Vipotnik
Subs: Andy Fisher, Marko Stamenic, Melker Widell, Josh Tymon, Bobby Wales, Kaelan Casey, Zeidane Inoussa, Ollie Cooper, Sam Parker

4-2-3-1
Millwall: Max Crocombe, Zak Sturge, Tristan Crama, Jack Cooper (c), Caleb Taylor, Thierno Ballo, Billy Mitchell, Mihailo Ivanovic, Camiel Neghli, Femi Azeez, Macaulay Langstaff
Subs: Steven Benda, Dan McNamara, Alfie Doughty, Ryan Leonard, Aidomo Emakhu, Joe Bryan, Ajay Matthews, Raees Bangura-Williams, Derek Mazou-Sacko

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Millwall 2 ( Ivanovic 34’, Taylor 90+2’) - Swansea 1 (Cabango 47’)
It was a one sided first half where Vigouroux saved us from a rout with a string of saves.
Start of second half Franco moved up to help the isolated Vipotnik and within two minutes we had equalised, Cabango from close range.
It the became a bit disjointed from both sides with Millwall getting the better chances.
Just when you thought we were going to snatch the draw with two minutes left of four added minutes, Taylor headed in, out jumping the static Stamenic.
Another away match ending in disappointment, Millwall had almost total domination first half, after a mini recovery second half we were back to our old ways in defence and were beaten by a team with only one win in their last six, matches, not a nice feeling.

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Match report

https://www.swanseacity.com/news/report-millwall-2-swansea-city-1-0

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Reaction from Matos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=RsAOpNmfvaI&feature=youtu.be

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Match highlights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK-bheRi93I

[Estoban]

Disappointing ending after the fightback, to say the least.
We looked jaded today after three out of the four holiday games in ten days were away from home, whereas Millwall had the reverse, one away game and three at home. How ridiculous and unfair.
Matos tried to alleviate the problem by utilising squad rotation but it didn’t work and we were overrun first half.
Wide open on the wings, cross after cross came in, Samuel-Smith beaten every time and Galbraith almost as bad.
Once the ball came over the centre-backs were not winning the headers. This is Millwall’s specialty, they are well known for it with their giant players dominating in the air.
We bounced back second-half with the equaliser but couldn’t get that crucial second goal, then lost momentum with our substitutions.
Millwall then brought on their subs and started to dominate again.
In injury time we had a corner, we should have taken it short, returned the ball to the corner flag and tried to keep it there but we didn’t. We lost possession, they broke away and scored the winner.
I hope it was lesson learnt and we concentrate on game management next time.
If you can’t win make sure you don’t lose!

[Iolo]

Hey ho what do ya know, it’s Iolo here.
It looks like to me to play the Matos high intensity way you need to be super fit. Couple the extra training with the high amount of games lately and it has caught up with us.
Also, over training in mid-season causes injuries and that’s is what we’re seeing with Key, Cullen, Idah, Ronald, Galbraith and Santos on the treatment table. Just a theory guys but it has some logic.
The lethargic play yesterday was plain to see.