Steve Bruce would have been frustrated by the display at Millwall, especially because pretty much none of the fringe players took their chances at the Den.
There wasn’t really much to shout about with the likes of Henri Lansbury, Jonathan Kodjia and Scott Hogan flattering to deceive and not giving themselves much of a case for being selected.
The manager was always going to be in a catch-22 situation for the last game. He would have been hammered if he had chosen more regular starters and one or two had gotten injured.
Equally though, choosing the reserves means we head into the match against Middlesbrough having last won three weeks ago; that’s only two games of course but it would have been nice to have had a bit more momentum.
Out of the starting line up against the Lions, you could say at least four, James Chester, Conor Hourihane, Alan Hutton and Albert Adomah are the ones you would expect to start at the Riverside Stadium.
Millwall battled to get three points in order to sustain their very slim hopes of a playoff place, and those four, in particular, will have benefited from the competitive nature of the contest going into the play-off semi-final.
With the other seven, you would say only Mark Bunn really showed any promise with his double save after Lee Gregory’s penalty in the closing stages. With those likely to miss out, and replaced by the likes of Lewis Grabban and Robert Snodgrass, it means the majority of our side will have had two weeks of rest heading into the Boro game.
After a long hard season, that could prove of vital importance. We will no doubt be the fresher team after our opponents played a full strength line up against Ipswich.
Of course, that doesn’t guarantee we will have the edge, as you can also lose match sharpness during an extended period without a game. A fortnight off shouldn’t be too much to worry about, and after seeing his squad players in action yesterday, the manager will be keen to get the regulars in as soon as possible.
