RELAX! FRANKIE GOES TO BOREHAM WOOD
Keeper Fielding puts bad times behind him to lift Lions
FRANK FIELDING could finally draw a line under some pretty “dark times” after banking his first 90 minutes for Millwall.
The Lions keeper ruptured a quad muscle on his debut against Preston in August 2019 and suffered a serious bicep injury on the comeback trail last year.
After three operations and 18 months of anguish, the f ormer England Under- 21 wa s a b l e t o r e b o o t h i s Millwall career with a clean sheet and few alarms in the FA Cup minefield at Meadow Park ( far right).
Now 32, all of a sudden Fielding has a bright future behind him.
But his experience will be an asset to manager Gary Rowett as the Lions, badly hit by a Covid outbreak shortly before Christmas, stabilise t heir season . Fi el ding ( i n action, right) paid tribute to t h e s o l i d a r i t y o f t h e goal keeping union which help ed him st ay positiv e during the long months of rehabilitation.
He sai d: “I ’m obviously relieved – it’s been a long time coming. There have been some dark times but that’s football. I got a nice run- out and I really enjoyed it.
“The medical department k e p t me g o i n g – t h r e e surgeries back- to- back wasn’t nice, and I didn’t expect to walk through the door on day one and spend the whole year in the gym.
“But I ’m just delighted it’s over and now I can l ook for ward. We’ve got a great goal ke e pi ng s e t - up h e re . There’s Joe Wright and Sandy ( Rya n S a n d f o r d) , whose attitudes are spot- on, and the big man ( Bartosz Bialkowski) is a great guy to be around.”
Fielding ’s only scare, as Mi l l w a l l o u t p l a y e d t h e National League side, was former Lincoln battering ram Matt Rhead ( sitting, below left) spooning over from the best chance of the game when the visitors led 1- 0.
Apart from that, Rowett’s eight changes did not affect the Lions’ cohesion and they peppered Boreham Wood’s goal with 23 shots.
On- loan Tottenham forward Troy Parro tt d e c orat e d a tetchy game with moments of quality, notably the flick which sent Scott Malone clear to set up only the second goal of Kenneth Zohore’s loan spell from West Brom.
S h a u n H u t c h i n s o n’s s ec ond- half header, f rom another Malone assist, kept the Wood at a safe distance, but Millwall’s mettle will be t ested by si x games in 18 days, starting with tomorrow night’s date at Bournemouth.
Manager Rowett stopped short of calling for a circuitbreak in the season to stem the rising tide of coronavirus p o s i t i v e t e s t s w i t h i n professional football.
But he warned: “There’s a worrying trend with clubs getting far more Covid cases than previously.
“We don’t want players’ families, partners and parents getting ill with Covid and it’s a dangerous scenario.
“I ’m not saying what we should or shouldn’t do about it, but I hope it doesn’t take someone to get seriously ill for the game to sit up and take notice.”
Ashmore 8, Fyfield 6, Stephens 6, Ilesanmi 6, Smith 6, Mafuta 6, Thomas 6, Murtagh 6 ( Mingoia 87), Tshimanga 6 ( Coulthirst 79), Rhead 5 ( Mcdonnell 87), Morias 6 ( Whitely 69, 6).
Fielding 6, Mcnamara 7, Hutchinson 7, Cooper 6, Pearce 7, Malone 7, Leonard 6, Woods 7 ( Thompson 88), Burey 6 ( Bradsha 60, 6), Zohore 6 ( Bodvarsson 60, 6), Parrott 8 ( Smith 80).