By Jr
November 21 2004

While not being a classic encounter, Millwall’s 1-0 victory over local promotion rivals West Ham was extremely gratifying for the fans and the management team. After winning 4-1 so convincingly in the same fixture last season, many Lions fans feared a more resolute Hammers side. Millwall 1 West Ham 0 21-11-04

While not being a classic encounter, Millwall’s 1-0 victory over local promotion rivals West Ham was extremely gratifying for the fans and the management team.

After winning 4-1 so convincingly in the same fixture last season, many Lions fans feared a more resolute Hammers side - strengthened by the recent additions of Mauricio Taricco and Darren Powell.

In the event, the ineffective Taricco was withdrawn with a hamstring injury, according to West Ham boss Alan Pardew - who had to endure the away section chanting: “We want Pardew out!”

That chant was testimony to Millwall’s slight superiority, in terms of tactics and personnel, which clearly rankled the Hammers supporters.

By contrast, the Lions fans’ expectations are more modest.

Rather than demanding promotion this season, Millwall supporters only expect the players to fight hard for the cause and like last season the players did not disappoint.

Making his home debut, Scott Dobie may have been dismayed at not opening his goalscoring account from close range when he almost latched on to David Livermore’s left wing cross but more bad luck was to come in the second half.

With Paul Ifill and Danny Dichio unleashed from the substitute’s bench, Millwall looked even more potent upfront, as Ifill crossed for Dobie to beat the keeper with a header.

Dobie’s effort was cleared off the line via the underside of the crossbar by Chris Powell.

A couple of minutes later, Dichio broke the deadlock with a powerful header from Kevin Muscat’s right wing cross to send the 13,000 or so Millwall fans home happy.

Afterwards, Pardew claimed that the turning point of the match was the dismissal of Marlon Harewood, just 18 minutes after the interval.

The former Nottingham Forest striker seemed to dive over Darren Ward’s leg and was booked for simulation.

As Harewood had already been cautioned for a challenge on Muscat, it was an early bath for the Hammers top scorer.

Millwall assistant manager Ray Wilkins agreed that Harewood’s red card hampered West Ham’s hopes of taking anything from this hotly contested local “derby”.

Wilkins said: "Harewood's sending-off was a turning point.

“I am not doing an Arsene Wenger, but I did not see the incident that led to his first booking.

"But we wanted to be positive in the game, and we made the changes when we felt things weren't going our way.

“We had to get this result against West Ham, and it puts us two points behind them with two games in hand.
"[Player-manager] Dennis Wise and I are very pleased with the squad that we have.

"When we have a fully-fit squad, we are as strong as anyone in the division."

“You can see the confidence coming back in training, with Neil Harris and Jody Morris returning from injury.”

Now Millwall have a chance to put their rekindled confidence to the test, with an away trip to Crewe on the night of Tuesday 30th November, following a Saturday visit (kick off 3pm) to Turf Moor to face Burnley.