Millwall vs Luton Town. Sky Bet Championship.
The Den.
Report and highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash at The Den
Tuesday 20 October 2020 23:20, UK
Connor Mahoney inspired Millwall to back-to-back Championship victories with a comfortable 2-0 win over Luton at The Den.
Mahoney was a constant thorn in the Hatters' side and capped off a fine performance with a game-sealing strike, firing across Simon Sluga to make it 2-0 in the closing stages.
Millwall were the better side throughout and took a deserved lead on the stroke of half-time when Matt Smith's header was deflected in for an own goal off Martin Cranie.
Luton pushed in the second half but lacked a cutting edge, with their second successive defeat seeing the Lions leapfrog them into the play-off places.
Early possession went Luton's way but opportunities fell to the hosts, Mason Bennett slotting through Ryan Leonard who could only fire wide of the far post.
Bennett continued to threaten, his hanging cross headed over by Jake Cooper as Millwall upped the momentum through the first half.
They should have scored when Smith's back-post header cannoned into the upright, with Jed Wallace's follow-up well saved by Sluga.
Mahoney posed problems down the left but he showed plenty of enterprise cutting in as well, with his long-range strike forcing another low stop from Sluga.
Luton showed little goalscoring threat in the first half, with Kazenga LuaLua and Sonny Bradley having efforts blocked after Pelly Ruddock had earlier fired harmlessly over.
But a barrage of corners finally saw the Lions take the lead, Mahoney's excellent delivery met by Smith and going in courtesy of a crucial deflection off Cranie, with the last attack of the half.
Wallace should have doubled the lead five minutes after the break but somehow blazed over the bar with the goal at his mercy.
Luton finally found some attacking impetus and they felt aggrieved not to have a penalty when Danny Hylton was seemingly pushed in the area.
Substitute Joe Morrell then fizzed wide just moments after coming on but Millwall still held a threat at the other end, with the game opening up towards the final quarter.
LuaLua was off target shortly after but the Hatters were limited to long-range shots as a solid home defence held firm.
And the visitors were duly punished with a second Millwall goal, Ruddock giving the ball away with the resulting attacking move finding Mahoney who fired across the goal and beat Sluga to score off the inside of the post.
It took until the 83rd minute for a first major Town chance, with Bartosz Bialkowski producing a wonderful fingertip save to deny Cranie.
Ruddock headed wide in stoppage time but no goals looked likely for a Luton side who have now scored in only one of their last four Championship games.
Millwall's Gary Rowett: "I thought it was an excellent performance. When you've played so well as we did in the second half on Saturday, you've got to back it up. Good teams do that, they put back-to-back performances together and that's what I asked the players to do. We're six games in - we went to fourth but could have gone to 14th if we'd lost.
"It's about us building, we've been defensively excellent for the 12 months, now it's about translating that good play into more attacking moments in games. There's no point standing here and eulogising about a 2-0 win and saying we're one of the fancied teams because we're not. We've got to work incredibly hard every week. We've got to be at our best every game to go and get a result."
Luton's Nathan Jones: "I thought we were pretty passive, got out-muscled, we knew we can't come here and have a fight with Millwall as they're probably better than you at doing that. We need to really be aggressive and to play, to move the ball quickly, but we didn't any time they pressed us.
"James [Collins] is absolutely fine, but he's had a positive result and had to stick to the protocols. We've had people who are waiting for Covid tests who haven't been able to train, it's a whole new world and a minefield."
