MILLWALL’S final pre-season friendly before the start of the 2020-21 season ended in a 1-0 defeat to Crystal Palace at The Den on Tuesday afternoon.
Palace winger Max Meyer scored the only goal of the game when he finished from close range after half an hour.
Lions boss Gary gave match action to 19 players ahead of the EFL Cup trip to Crawley on Saturday.
Main match action
The first real chance of the game fell to Palace’s Jeffrey Schlupp who fired wide of Bart Bialkowski’s left-hand post in the 12th minute.
Palace gained control and when Wilfried Zaha was left one-on-one with Alex Pearce in the inside-right position a half an hour in, Millwall were in real trouble. Zaha tricked his way past the Lions captain, the hosts couldn’t clear the low cross, and Meyer clipped his finish inside the left post.
Palace looked like they were going to go 2-0 up eight minutes into the second half when Zaha and Meyer combined to put Schlupp through, but he shot straight at Bialkowski from 12 yards.
Bialkowski was beaten by Jordan Ayew’s low effort an hour in, Shaun Hutchinson scrambling back to save his goalkeeper.
Zaha shot just wide in the 67th minute as Palace’s pace in attack continued to cause the home side problems.
Millwall registered their first shot on target with 22 minutes left when Jed Wallace picked out Scott Malone at the far post but Vicente Guaita saved low to his left.
Wallace and then Connor Mahoney fired over as the Lions chased an equaliser.
Tom Bradshaw headed substitute James Brown’s cross wide with 11 minutes left before Hutchinson blocked Ayew’s shot in the box.
Bradshaw went close to a late equaliser, but with his back to goal flicked the ball wide from Matt Smith’s mis-hit shot.
Zaha’s class makes the difference
Millwall could do without these injuries before the season even starts. The luckless Jiri Skalak was set to start at right wing-back on Tuesday, but pulled out in the warm-up.
Troy Parrott was at The Den but will miss the EFL Cup first-round trip to Crawley on Saturday and potentially the league opener at home to Stoke the following weekend.
Millwall started brightly and there was lots of space for their wing-backs Malone and Hayden Muller, who replaced Skalak.
But the Lions couldn’t test Eagles goalkeeper Guaita in any meaningful way.
Palace had the players to make the difference in their attacking third, and Millwall can be thankful they won’t face a forward as good as Zaha in the league this season.
He showed his outrageous skill early in the first half when he shifted the ball between his feet to leave Shaun Williams bamboozled. It was genuinely blink-and-you-miss-it sorcery with his feet.
Palace were just quicker than Millwall. When a Lions player got the ball they were generally quickly swamped. That should at least help sharpen reactions with the start of the league campaign just a week-and-a-half away.
Mahoney gave Millwall more of an attacking threat, but apart from Malone’s effort Millwall hadn’t looked that dangerous.
Tyler Burey made a promising cameo when he came on, giving Millwall lots of pace and directness on the left with another substitute, left-back Junior Tiensia. That pair could benefit from loans in this campaign, and both look good enough for those to be in the Football League. Burey had a shout for a late penalty, but Millwall were denied.
Team news
Rowett played a 5-2-3 formation before switching to four at the back for the last quarter of an hour.
5-2-3: Bialkowski; Skalak (Muller before kick-off; Brown, 75), Hutchinson, Pearce (M Wallace, 63), Cooper (Smith, 75), Malone (Tiensia, 75); Leonard (Thompson, 75), Williams (Woods, 63); J Wallace (Burey, 75), Bradshaw, Bennett (Mahoney, 63).
Subs not used: Sandford, Wright.
Image: Millwall FC