Really Wild and hostile

CHRIS WILDER was delighted with the way his side handled a hostile Den after their dismal showing at Sheffield United.

The Middlesbrough boss revealed he got stuck into his players after their 4-1 midweek thrashing on his return to Bramall Lane.

It still was not enough to bring a first away win of 2022 in a match that was marred by objects thrown by fans with Boro physio Chris Moseley being struck.

It led to a 70th-minute announcement that the referee would take the players off the pitch if objects continued to be thrown.

But Wilder preferred to focus on how his players dealt with a bruising encounter from a Millwall side now unbeaten in seven league games.

Wilder said: “It was unacceptable what happened on Tuesday night and the players answered it at possibly the toughest of places.

“They ask questions of you all over – behind the dugout, in the stands and on the pitch.

“If you are weak mentally and physically they run over the top of you, and we

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dealt with that. I can be a little critical of us in the final third. We didn’t find that final run, cross or finish – but looking back a draw was a fair result.”

Boro enjoyed the better of the early chances in a full-bloodied contest.

Marcus Tavernier rattled the bar with a sixth-minute free-kick, while it took a combination of Lions keeper Bartosz Bialkowski and Daniel Ballard to thwart Folarin Balogun after he was sent clear by Tavernier’s pass.

It was Millwall’s turn to shake the timber at the start of the second-half as a Murray Wallace header from Scott Malone’s corner skimmed the top of the bar.

Jake Cooper thought he had put the hosts ahead when he connected with Jed Wallace’s 63rd-minute corner but Joe Lumley clawed the ball out from the top right corner.

Malone looked to have been gifted a tap in from Benik Afobe’s attempted overhead kick but failed to control the ball with the goal at his mercy.

Then with four minutes remaining Afobe turned Dael Fry on the edge of the box but fired over.

Millwall boss Gary Rowett said: “It was a really competitive game with lots of moments in both boxes to keep you on your toes as a manager.

“I felt we had the better chances in the game, the best of which was Scotty’s – any sort of touch, he scores.”

SUPER SAVER Boro keeper Lumley brilliantly denies Cooper MILLWALL: Bialkowski 7; Ballard 8, Cooper 8, M Wallace 8; McNamara 7, Saville 7, Mitchell 7, Malone 8; J Wallace 7, Afobe 7, Bennett 6 (Lovelace 70). Long, Pearce, Mahoney, Evans, Burey, Muller. Lumley 7; McNair 8, Fry 7, Peltier 8; Jones 7, Howson 8, Tavernier 9, Taylor 7; Crooks 6, Connolly 7 (Watmore 74), Balogun 7. Daniels, Wood, Bamba, Bola, Coburn, Boyd-Munce. Marcus Tavernier. Silk and steel in the middle of the park. Robert Jones 6.