[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]West Ham come back from two goals behind to draw with arch rivals Millwall at The Den.
A game of two halves is a common phrase in the beautiful game, but the 100th Dockers Derby was exactly that yesterday afternoon.
The first half was nothing but embarrassing for West Ham United; we couldn’t string two passes together against what isn’t even close to their strongest starting eleven.
The difference in hunger, pace, and energy in their team compared to ours wasn’t even comparable. Every single player on their team wanted to be there pretty much more than every player on our team in that first period.
The first goal was just awful defending, before the save, with the pure panic in trying to deal with the Dykes long throw. Mads Hermansen made a brilliant save amid the panic; however, poor defending allowed Taylor to put the Lions into the lead early on.
More sloppy play for the Hammers then led to Sykes smashing the crossbar from miles out after yet another poor pass from Mavropanos set the Millwall winger up perfectly for a shot.
It became two not long after, as another Dykes throw-in ripped through the Hammers defence. It somehow went over everyone and landed at the feet of Neghli in front of goal, and he fired past Hermansen.
It was just all Millwall in that first period; the visitors didn’t have a sniff.
That completely changed in the second, mainly thanks to Nuno’s substitutions; Pablo and Kante came on at the halfway stage for Piroe and Walker-Peters. This means we changed to a 3-4-1-2 formation, and it worked.
We continued to dominate the ball; however, we were actually doing something with it. Compared to one shot in the second half, we had fourteen in the second.
It was down to the tactics in part, but it was mainly down to the change in attitude. Both Kanté and Pablo brought that; they looked like they cared more than any starter for the Hammers.
We all know what happened after that mentality switch. Pablo went close with a header, but we couldn’t find the breakthrough.
That was until Kanté unleashed a wonderful strike from 25 yards out to pull one back. After that, it was a full-on onslaught on the Millwall goal. They were defending well, but it was corner after corner.
It finally got one too many for the Lions as Bowen’s inswinging ball in from the right found the head of Mavropanos to score his fourth goal of the season already.
The battering continued, and it looked like we were going to find a winner; however, sloppy play from Kante allowed Kyrell Lisbie in on goal. Kante had no choice but to take the red card and bring him down.
It was frustrating to see that; however, every single Hammers fan would agree it was definitely the right thing to do in the moment.
After that, Millwall didn’t really threaten, and neither did we. We would all 100% have taken the point after that state of the first half.
But our character, resilience, and quality were portrayed in the second half, but if our players didn’t know much about how much the Dockers Derby means before, they certainly do now.
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