Millwall intensity is just too much for Birmingham City as Azeez lights up the Den once more
- By Yann Tear at The Den
- 23 hours ago
- 3 min read
Championship
Millwall (2) 3 Azeez 25, Crama 31, Cooper 49
Birmingham City (0) 0 Solis s/o 53
Another star turn from Femi Azeez paved the way for the rampant Lions to claim the win that further entrenches them in the top six. It's starting to look very good indeed for the men from the Den.
The mercurial winger hit a humdinger to open the scoring then had a big hand in the second to reward Millwall's relentless chasing and closing down of opponents. This was a victory carved out with graft and oodles of energy but also no little skill and subtlety when it mattered.
Tristan Crama also enjoyed a memorable night - scoring once and having a hand in the other two goals.
We are not quite in run-in territory yet but the spring-like weather ahead of the game was a reminder that the end game isn't that far away, so this felt like a significant win.
The Lions increasingly believe they can be one of those occupying a seat when the game of musical chairs ends in May, despite the weekend setback when they slipped to an unexpected 3-1 home defeat to Portsmouth.
The big carrot dangling in front of them ahead of this one was the chance to extend their lead over seventh place (ie the first team outside the play-off zone) to nine points. Even with 12 games still to play, that is quite the buffer.
The visitors are one of those teams also jostling for the top six and they were intent on giving their own ambitions a leg up - and having thumped the Lions 4-0 at St Andrews in November, were hoping a bit of muscle memory might kick in here. As it happens they got nowhere near.
Alex Neil made four changes to the team that started against Pompey. Caleb Taylor missed out while Alfie Doughty, Tom Watson and Mihailo Ivanovic dropped to the bench with Zak Sturge, Ryan Leonard, Josh Coburn and Macauley Langstaff recalled.
The Lions looked the busier of the two sides at the outset and Coburn got a firm head to Camiel Neghli's ball in from the left, but the direction was too high. Langstaff was within a whisker of getting on the end of a ball angled in from the right by Azeez.
And Azeez it was who broke the deadlock with his eighth goal of the season when he seized on Crama's nod down to send a beautiful dipping shot over keeper James Beadle into the far corner of the net.
That came moments after Jay Stansfield came close to scoring with a firm strike which Anthony Patterson did well to get down to and turn aside. Sliding doors and all that.
Azeez was looking s through he was going to keep tearing it up and when his blistering swerving free-kick from 35 yards came back off a post after a fingertip touch from Beadle, there was Crama to bury a kind rebound.
Birmingham City, unbeaten in eight league games, were being swept aside.
And Millwall just knew it was going to be their day when the skipper scored too. Jake Cooper was on hand to score from five yards, with that man Crama the supplier from the byline to cap a great night for him. Neghli too had an impressive night which should have been rounded off with an injury time goal - he blazed over when clean through.
Home fans were hardly fretting after going 3-0 up but they soon had even more reason to enjoy the certainty of the win when Blues midfielder Jhon Solis picked up a second yellow card to reduce a well-beaten Brum to 10 men for all but eight minutes of the second half.
The game played out to ole's and a few near misses - but certainly no stress for the roaring Lions.
Next up for them are trips to Preston and Hull before a return to Bermondsey to entertain Derby and Blackburn.
Lions: (4-2-3-1) Patterson - Leonard, Crama, Cooper Sturge (Doughty 74) - De Norre, Mitchell (Bannan 80) - Azeez (Watson 74), Neghli, Langstaff - Coburn (Ivanovic 60)
Brum: (4-2-3-1) Beadle - Osayi-Samuel, Klarer, Panzo, Wagner (Laird 68) - Iwata, Solis - Vicente (Roberts 80), Stansfield (Ducksch 80), Osman (Gray h/t) - Priske (Doyle 54)
Attendance: 16,636
