Oct 31 Johnstone Paints Trophy Millwall 2-0 AFC Bournemouth Att 1905

Last updated : 04 November 2006 By Dabe Linsay
During the pre match up warm up the mascot seemed to be more fired up than the players which begged the inevitable question as to why he was not on the bench. It is difficult in the cold light of day this morning to come up with one name who enhanced, or even got close to, his reputation as no one seemed to be that interested and fired up. We gifted Millwall the lead after 20 minutes after an uncharacteristic slip by Callum Hart, but that being said he has not begun to my mind to have got close to his form of last season. Playing out of position he proved to be a revelation, but this term his confidence seems to be shot. The second one was not that much better giving May an almost free header from a corner less that two minutes into the second half. If there was one thing that really upset me, however, it was the treatment that was handed out to Leon Best by a significant minority of the travelling fans (we totalled perhaps 200 in the 1900 crowd). I am not a Best fan. He is simply too clumsy for my liking, goes over too easily and has poor distribution. In fact, he reminds me in many respects of Chukki. But what really riled me was that here is a youngster trying to find his way in the game, playing to orders and giving it his all for the club, being barracked with taunts of "Scummer" for missing what should have been a relatively simple chance with 12 minutes to go. There was certainly no excuse for failing to test the keeper and putting the ball into the side netting. But to taunt him in the manner that he was? Completely unacceptable. As I say, whilst he or indeed any youngster that joins the club on loan irrespective of his provenance (and lets face it we will continue to see them coming across from Portsmouth and Southampton for the foreseeable) we all have a responsibility to get behind them when they are wearing the AFCB shirt. Perhaps it is a good thing that his loan period is up as I am not sure that he would want to play for the club again as there was absolutely no way that he could not have heard, and therefore been affected, by the level of abuse that was aimed at him. I was at Cambridge a few years ago when S O'D came across to the far side of the pitch to remonstrate with a small group of fans who had got on Chukki's back. He was affected and was never the same player and now Best could well go the same way. By all means barrack him should he turn up in the future playing for another side against AFCB, but never, ever, whilst is a Bournemouth player. And the irony of the night? Other than the two gifts that we presented Millwall with Pidgely was easily the busier keeper pulling off two smart saves to Mossy's none. Millwall for the second time in a few weeks did not impress me. Their approach play is good and they work incredibly hard for one another but they finishing is shocking. We may have lost twice but the three goals were all given to them on a plate and in 180 minutes they failed to actually create a meaningful chance of their own. Apologies for the rant but now that we are in the relegation zone (and I appreciate that we have only just put back the clocks) the omens do not exactly look good for the rest of the season, and that is without Sean continuing to raid the backroom. Oh well, at least they halved the entry price last night.....

AFCB: Moss, Gowling, Young, Hart, Cummings, Purches, Hollands, Anderton, Best, Ainsworth, Hayter
Subs: Stewart, Maher, Fletcher, Songo'o (on for Cummings, HT), Foley (for Ainsworth, 53)
David Linsay, Essex