Richard Sadlier's two headed goals fired Millwall into the fourth round of the
FA Cup for the first time in six years in an incident-packed match against Third
Division Scunthorpe.
Yet Millwall had never beaten Scunthorpe in cup competition and again made
hard work of this one.
With 49 league positions separating the two sides, few would have betted
against the Lions taking the lead.
And it seemed to be going according to the script as Sadlier fired a
14th-minute lead for the hosts. Some fine vision from Neil Harris presented the
Dubliner with his chance.
Harris, who marked his return from a battle with testicular cancer with a goal
at Watford on New Year's Day, spotted a run from Steven Reid and threaded the
ball through the static Scunthorpe defence.
Reid lofted his cross for Sadlier whose header looped home off the far post.
But the Third Division side would not lie down and fought their way back into
the contest, largely thanks to Lions goalkeeper Tony Warner.
Millwall's lead lasted just six minutes as the former Liverpool man spilled a
corner when surrounded only by his own defenders, the ball falling to Scunthorpe
centre-half Jamie McCombe who made no mistake from six yards.
For the next 40 minutes, with the home crowd noisily venting their
frustrations, the game threatened to descend into farce.
Both sides were restricted to a few speculative, long-range efforts and the
focus of the game was on other incidents.
Tim Cahill was stretchered off after an ugly challenge - one that went
unnoticed by the referee - left him with a gashed leg while a clash of heads
resulted in goalscorer McCombe departing with a broken nose.
And Stuart Thom, McCombe's replacement, was booked within five minutes of
coming on for a crude display of petulance on Harris.
But shortly after the hour, the focus returned to football as Sadlier
completed his double by getting on the end of Marc Kinet's diagonal ball and
nodding home from close in.
Teams:
Millwall: Warner, Lawrence, Ryan, Nethercott, Dyche, Reid,
Cahill (Kinet 39), Bircham, Livermore, Harris (Claridge 70),
Sadlier.
Subs Not Used: Gueret, Ward, Bull.
Goals: Sadlier 14, 63.
Scunthorpe: Evans, Stanton, Jackson, McCombe (Thom 55),
Lee Ridley, Hodges, Sparrow, Calvo-Garcia, Beagrie,
Graves (Quailey 78), Torpey.
Subs Not Used: Brough, Barwick, Bennion.
Booked: Lee Ridley, Thom, Torpey, Jackson.
Goals: McCombe 20.
Att: 9,244
Ref: T Parkes (Birmingham).
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