Millwall - 3 (Claridge 51. Sadlier 53. 56.)
Crystal Palace - 0

Millwall kicked off in this game, and despite an early scare Palace settled in well, with Julian Gray making a good run down the left side of the field. Richard Sadlier then did well, but was eventually crowded off the ball. David Hopkin and Clinton Morrison teamed well to get the ball through to Trevor Benjamin, but Millwall were equal to the task, and got the ball clear.

Neil Harris managed to get past Aki Riihilahti, but his shot went for a corner, which Alex Kolinko caught well. David got a good ball through to Jovan Kirovski, but he messed up the chance to make something better of the opportunity, and the ball went harmlessly out of play. Gregg Berhalter got the ball up the field to Julian Gray, but he also wasted the ball, as did Jovan shortly after.

A free kick to Millwall was taken by David Livermore, but Jamie Smith came to the rescue, sending the ball behind for a corner. The ball came sailing in from the corner, but Steve Claridge hit his shot straight at Alex, who did well to hang on to it. The next corner was also well dealt with by Alex, though this time he punched the ball away. He then had to move quickly to save a shot from Tim Cahill, and a long shot from Robbie Ryan was deflected for yet another corner to the home side. Gregg then cleared well for Palace, and though all the pressure was coming from the home side Palace were holding on well.

Clinton made a break, but his through ball found Aki as the defence effectively closed him down. Marc Bircham sent a shot straight into the waiting arms of Alex in goal before Clinton forced Sean Dyche into conceding a corner. A double attempt at goal by Palace went astray as the Millwall defence stood firm then Kit Symons had to clear in a hurry.

Despite all the end-to-end play neither side was really making much progress, and though Millwall were getting marginally the better of the play Palace were still looking dangerous on the break. Clinton had a shot saved and then Sadlier missed the ball when he really should have made better use of it. Julian headed the ball into the area, but the whistle went for half time, and the game was all level at the break.

Palace got things underway in the second half, but it was more of the same, with Millwall doing the bulk of the attacking, and Palace just managing to hang on. Clinton just missed an opportunity to open the scoring, but then in a deadly five-minute spell the wheels literally fell off for Palace. At 51 minutes that man Claridge met a cross from Harris, turned neatly in the area, and fired the shot easily past a stranded Alex in goal. Two minutes later it was 2-0 when Sadlier, left alone in acres of space, turned, picked out exactly where he wanted to put the ball, and simply fired it home.

Clinton then had a good shot saved at the other end before the shutters were really raised by Millwall when they scored their third goal in 5 minutes. Sadlier once again stole in, this time at the back post, and he simply put his shot home without any opposition. Alex then had to be alert to make a double save from the two goalscorers of the day, otherwise the scoreline really could have blown out to any proportion at all.

Sadlier nearly got his hat-trick moments later, but Alex pulled off a good save to deny him, and then he needed to be alert again to save a shot from Harris. Aki missed a shot following a centered ball from David before Claridge missed yet another shot at the other end. Scott Gooding was brought on for his debut, taking the place of Jamie Smith - what a baptism of fire!

David Livermore had a shot deflected for a corner before both Bircham and Claridge missed good chances to really seal the match. Paul Ifill came close to trying his luck, but Gregg was alert enough to prevent any danger coming from the situation.

Three minutes was added to the end of the game, but apart from another shot, taken by Ifill, there really was no item of interest to any of the spectators, and the final whistle sounded allowing Palace supporters that had remained to the end to head off to nurse their wounds.

The team will really have to do much better on the visit to Bradford, or we might never turn this season's away form around. Colin Pryce

Millwall: Tony Warner, Marc Bircham, Sean Dyche, David Livermore, Matt Lawrence, Stuart Nethercott, Robbie Ryan, Tim Cahill, Steve Claridge (Paul Ifill 87), Richard Sadlier, Neil Harris (Steven Reid 87).

Substitutes not used: Willy Gueret, Ronnie Bull, Darren Ward.

Crystal Palace: Alex Kolinko, Gregg Berhalter, Christian Edwards, Kit Symons (Craig Harrison 66), Jamie Smith (Scott Gooding 76), Julian Gray, David Hopkin, Aki Riihilahti, Trevor Benjamin, Clinton Morrison, Jovan Kirovski (Steve Thomson 66).

Substitutes not used: Cedric Carasso, Steve Kabba.

Attendance: 16,630

Referee: Mr D Elleray (Harrow-on-the-Hill)