I’ve seen today described as the day that will define our season in some quarters. A bit overly dramatic I reckon, but there’s no denying that a feeling is growing that 22/23 is going to be a lot tougher if we have to go through to January with the current strikeforce which is still awaiting it’s first goal of the campaign.
I’m pretty confident that we will not do this, but am none too sure of us being in a position to move beyond what has been almost a complete reliance so far on the loan and free transfer markets. There is talk of £1.5 million bids being put in for a striker at a Championship club, but that strikes me as odd when everything we’ve heard from City through this summer has indicated a tightening of the belts – the loss at the Court of Arbitration for Sport last week in the Emilio Sala case makes any transfer spending more unlikely if anything surely?
New players or not, the season will continue on Saturday with a visit to Sreve Morison’s old club, Millwall who were fancied by many as dark horses for a Play Off spot this season after a summer where they’ve been spending more than you’d normally associate with that club.
So far, the newcomers have not gelled and there’s an un Millwall like number of goals being conceded which means that they’re too near the bottom of the table for their liking at the moment, but any opinions expressed about any team should be prefaced with the words “it’s early days yet” (even when talking about our chronic lack of goals I suppose!) and I’d be surprised if Millwall are not heading towards mid table or higher in the coming weeks. For that reason, I’d be happy with what had become the traditional draw between the teams in meetings at the New Den until Millwall’s 2-1 win last season.
Here’s seven Millwall related questions dating back to to the sixties, the answers to which will be put on here on Sunday.
60s. When I think of this forward now, it is not with him playing in Millwall blue, or white. In fact, I didn’t know he’d played for them until a few minutes ago! Starting off in youth football in Dublin (he was associated with Shamrock Rovers at one time), he crossed the sea to play his first senior football with defunct Redcoats, but made so little impact that he had to move to non league Steelmen to play regularly. Millwall signed him on the back of what he did at that club and it turned out to be good business for them, as , after only one full season at the Den, he was sold at a profit to a club that played in the colours of every other club he played for bar one. His career trajectory continued on an upward path with a move west to the Midlands, but a transfer to learned relative newcomers signalled the beginning of the descent part of his career. A move north to white roamers signalled a change from his normal colour, but, in a transfer which almost seemed like he was missing wearing his favourite attire, he returned to the club which had sold him to see out the final days of his playing career before a brief spell as a manager at a nearby non league Cross. On the international front, his sole goal came in a losing cause at Wembley, but who is he?
70s. This midfielder played nearly all of his football many miles away from his birthplace. The closest he got to home was as a youngster when he won a Youth Cup with bitter rivals and played around fifty times for their first team before a move to more aristocratic surroundings in the capital which did not work out for him. With no offence meant to his next club, it was definitely a downmarket move for him, but he did pretty well there overall and played some First Division football for them. Millwall were his next club and he was a regular in their team for a couple of years culminating in a relegation. His final two clubs saw a contrast between the genteel south at a retirement home and a venue in Yorkshire that was no stranger to a struggle at the foot of the table – it’s looking like they face another one this season. Who am I describing?
80s. Rule pet grease mess be moved from Millwall to Bournemouth? (5,8)
90s. Who links The Flinstones, former President Walken and the Millwall forward line from early in this decade?
00s. South coast cat as a none too successful Millwall striker?
10s. A beaten Millwall side at Cardiff City Stadium in this decade included two current day Championship managers, name them.
20s. Which member of the current Millwall squad is in his fourth separate spell at the club?
Answers
60s. Hugh Curran’s family moved to Dublin when he was a boy, hence his early association with club’s in that city, but he was born in Scotland when he started off his senior career with Third Lanark. Curran had to move south though to Corby Town to make his first significant impact in the game and earn a move to Millwall. Curran was top scorer as Millwall were promoted from Division Four in his one full season with them and this led to moves to Second Division Norwich and then First Division Wolves. Oxford United signed Curran in 1972 and he was to have a second spell there five years later after three seasons spent at Bolton Wanderers. Curran also managed Banbury Town for a while and his one goal in five caps for Scotland came in a 3-1 defeat at Wembley in 1972.
70s.Newcastyle born Brian Chambers was part of an FA Youth Cup winning team at Sunderland before he signed for Arsenal. After playing just one league game for the Gunners, he signed for Luton and then Millwall before spells with AFC Bournemouth and Halifax.
80s. Peter Gleasure.
90s. John Goodman was the voice of Fred Flinstone in the film version of the sixties cartoon show, he also played Glenallen Walken. who took over as President of the United States for a few days in the West Wing, while his virtual namesake Jon Goodman was a Millwall forward who won a couple of caps for the Republic of Ireland in the early nineties.
00s. Tom Brighton scored just the one in sixteen league games for Millwall between 2006 and 2008.
10s. Steve Morison was in the starting eleven for Millwall’s 2-1 loss at Cardiff City Stadium in September 2011 and current Huddersfield boss Danny Schofield came on as a sub.
20s. George Saville first played for Millwall on loan from Chelsea in 2013. Two years later, he was back on a temporary basis again while a Wolves player and then he signed permanently from them in 2017. Last year, Saville signed for Millwall yet again, this time from Middlesbrough.