Burey off the bench to bag late winner for Lions against West Brom

Millwall (1) 2 Styles 28, Burey 90

West Brom (1) 1 Swift 20

Tyler Burey came off the bench to bag an injury-time winner for the Lions as they made it four wins in a row.

The winner came not long after Albion had been reduced to 10 and late home momentum finally paid off.

The result elevates Gary Rowett’s men to an improbable fifth in the Championship table.

This is a team that continues to defy expectations.

The presence of Jed Wallace in the opposition ranks was enough to guarantee a uniformly stoked-up Den would feel very involved from the word go.

And that home bile increased no end when the former Millwall winger played in the perfect assist for John Swift to give managerless Albion a 20th minute lead.

No-one employs the C word quite as liberally as folks from the Den when their blood is up. No-one sounds as unforgiving.

Wallace’s defection in the summer after turning his back on a new deal guaranteed there would be accusations aplenty of being a money-grabbing traitor. Not that most of the catcalls bothered with any subtler versions of the single word invective which came Wallace’s way.

The rancorous first half might have ended on that sour note had Millwall not roused themselves to level it not long before the break – a lucky break from a free-kick on the left saw a headed clearance canon back off an Albion defender for Callum Styles to turn onto and fire into the roof of the net.

The Lions began to look the stronger of the two teams as time wore on, with sub Burey flashing a shot inches wide, and then having an angled shot towards the same far corner ruled out for offside.

Millwall’s hopes of forcing a late winner were given a huge boost five minutes from time when Kyle Bartley was sent off for a second yellow. The central defender had been the pick of the Albion players.

The gap he left was ruthlessly exposed as another of the subs,Mason Bennett, slipped in Burey for a low shot past keeper Alex Palmer to secure that late win.

You can guess who was taunted about the scoreline after that.

Lions: (4-2-3-1) Long – McNamara, Hutchinson (Cresswell h/t), Cooper, Malone – Mitchell, Shackleton – Vogslammer (Burey 58), Flemming (Honeyman 83), Styles (Bennett 83) – Bradshaw (Afobe 76). Subs not used: Evans, Bialkowski

Albion: (3-4-3) Palmer – O'Shea, Furlong, Pieters (Townsend 64) – Reach, Yokulsu, Gardner-Hickman (Molumby 75), Bartley – J Wallace, Swift (Rogic 75), Grant (Phillips 84). Subs not used: Button, Diangana, Cleary

Attendance: 15,212