Potters cash blank check
MICHAEL O’NEILL was left scratching his head at how Stoke were not awarded a last-minute penalty.
The Potters boss admitted he was puzzled at referee Jeremy Simpson’s decision to book sub Jacob Brown instead of point to the spot, after he had appeared to be pushed in the back by Shaun Hutchinson.
O’neill did admit that a set-piece or penalty was probably the only way either side were going to score in a game low on goalmouth action.
He said: “I felt we were the better team in the game and then in the end we have a really bizarre decision go against us.
“The referee had a decision to make on whether it was a penalty. There was clear contact.
“Hutchinson comes into the back of Jacob. Jacob got to the ball first and to me that constitutes a penalty. It certainly does not constitute a dive and booking the player.”
Millwall boss Gary Rowett felt his side lacked the composure to rattle a Stoke team looking more physical and direct than last season’s relegation battlers.
Rowett said: “Stoke are a physical team and played very directly to the front and it made the game hard.
“When it is a game like that you have got to settle things down and play the game you want – we struggled to do that.”
Stoke’s former Chelsea star John Obi Mikel barely broke sweat, with the hosts’ most-likely route to goal coming from Jed Wallace, set-pieces and wing-back Scott Malone, on his second-spell league debut.
Lions keeper Bartosz Bialkowski saved bravely at the feet of Sam Clucas early on. Malone’s 19th-minute break paved the way for Jon Dadi Bodvarsson to test Stoke goalkeeper Adam Davies.
But from Davies’s hands the visitors broke and Jake Cooper toed Tyrese Campbell’s cross away from Sam Vokes.
Cooper repeated the action to stop Campbell’s clever flick playing in Vokes on 23 minutes.
Campbell then had a shot deflected into the side netting by Ryan Leonard.
Both sides showed willing after the break but with even less finesse. Wallace broke clear late on, but played his pass behind Connor Mahoney and the chance was lost.
And that left Brown’s yellow card on his Stoke league debut as the biggest talking point.
MILLWALL: Bialkowski 7, Leonard 7, Hutchinson 6, Cooper 7, Pearce 6, Malone 7 (M. Wallace 82), Williams 7, Thompson 7, Bennett 6 (Mahoney 64, 6), Bodvarsson 6 (Smith 63, 6), J. Wallace 8.
Subs not used: Wright, Bradshaw, Ferguson, Skalak.
STOKE: Davies 6, Smith 6, Batth 7, Chester 6, Martins Indi 7, Fox 6, Obi Mikel 6, Clucas 7, Powell 6 (Thompson 86), Vokes 7 (Brown 78), Campbell 7 (Fletcher 64, 6).
Subs not used: Butland, Ince, Tymon, Souttar.
MAN OF THE MATCH: Jed Wallace the man most likely to break the deadlock
REFEREE: Jeremy Simpson 7.