MILLWALL are on the verge of securing the play-offs after beating Queens Park Rangers 2-0 at The Den.
The Lions are nine points clear of seventh-placed Wrexham with three games to go and can confirm their first Championship top-six finish since 2002 with a point against Stoke City on Tuesday evening.
Early goals from Derek Mazou-Sacko and Camiel Neghli put the rampant Lions out of sight within seventeen minutes, and Millwall should have scored more, with Tristan Crama, Josh Coburn and Zak Sturge all coming close.
A second-half fightback from the visitors yielded few chances, and the Lions comfortably saw out the win, with a performance that suggested they were entirely at ease with the expectations placed upon them.
Alex Neil had spoken about how his side needed to play with less tension after a couple of slightly disappointing results leading into the game, but there were no signs of pre-match nerves infecting their performance, with Millwall all over the visitors from kick-off.
Within three minutes, they had the opener after Femi Azeez’s cross was cleared to the edge of the box and Mazou-Sacko thumped the ball into the far corner.
The Rangers, who have often struggled to keep up with the Lions at The Den, looked to be overawed by their athleticism and sheer energy, and were mostly pinned into their own half for the opening 45 minutes.
The Lions, meanwhile, were full of the invention and fluidity that had been missing in recent first halves. Four minutes after Mazou-Sacko’s strike, Casper De Norre curled a cross into the area that Tristan Crama glanced over the bar. Eight minutes later, Joe Walsh was caught in no man’s land after Jake Cooper won first contact from a free kick, and Crama looped an effort over.
Millwall’s pressure was rewarded in the seventeenth minute after another relentless spell of pressure. Azeez’s cross flew in from the right and Coburn went down as he went to get his head on it. Undeterred by the outraged roars from The Den, referee Tom Nield waved away any protests, and Millwall played on, with Ballo fending off Amadou Mbengue to retrieve the ball and put it back into the box. It was cleared out to Mazou-Sacko and he fed Neghli, who dummied past a defender, then calmly curled the ball into the far corner of the net.
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Neghli nearly doubled his tally in the 24th minute, bursting through one-on-one with the goalkeeper after landing on Coburn’s flick-on. He attempted to chip the onrushing Walsh but sent it over the bar.
Walsh was called into action again a minute later, having to contort himself acrobatically to push Coburn’s header over the bar.
QPR grew into the game as the half went on, getting on the ball more and finally venturing out of their own half, but their exertations only yielded a wildly struck Paul Smyth effort that went well wide.
Meanwhile, Millwall came close again when Thierno Ballo found the overlapped Sturge, who put the ball the wrong side of the post.
The Rangers’ late improvement clearly was not enough for Julian Stephan, who made an extraordinary four changes at half-time.
His side looked far more on it after the restart, with substitute Rumarn Burrell heading wide ten minutes into the second.
The game turned into an end-to-end affair, with both sides looking to hit the other on the counter immediately after turning it over.
However, it rarely yielded anything clear-cut for either team.
Coburn came within inches of getting on the end of Azeez’s dangerous ball in, and Ballo had an effort blocked in the box with what he claimed to be a hand. The referee disagreed.
Meanwhile, Rhys Norrington-Davies and substitute Illias Chair both blasted efforts wide from outside the box.
Neil made his first changes in the 70th minute, bringing on Tommy Watson and Macaulay Langstaff for Casper De Norre and Thierno Ballo.
Coburn had a brilliant chance to add a third and put the game beyond QPR’s reach in the 76th minute when he got on the end of Crama’s low cut-back, but Walsh somehow pushed it clear.
The final ten minutes were mostly uneventful as the Lions professionally saw out the win.
Millwall: 4-2-3-1 – Patterson; Crama, Taylor, Cooper, Sturge; Mazou-Sacko (Bannan 90), De Norre (Langstaff 70); Azeez (Cundle 86), Neghli, Ballo (Watson 70); Coburn (Ivanovic 86)
Substitutes: Crocombe, McNamara, Leonard, Lovelace
Queens Park Rangers: 4-2-3-1 – Walsh; Norrington-Davies, Clarke-Salter, Edwards, Mbengue (Cook 46); Morgan (Hayden 46), Varane (Madsen 46); Poku (Chair 60), Vale, Smyth (Burrell 46); Kone
Substitutes: Hamer, Adamson, Bennie, Kolli
Referee: Tom Nield
Attendance: 18,924 (2,957)
