Millwall crashed to only their second defeat in the last 13 games, 2-1 at home to a Gillingham side whose performance belied their lowly position in the league.

The Lions took the lead in the 69th minute, when Sean Dyche's long ball was controlled by Richard Sadlier. The Irishman crossed from the right for Tim Cahill to convert with a brave diving header for his ninth goal of the season.

But with just seven minutes remaining, Guy Ipoua equal-ised, tapping home after Simon Osborne pulled the ball back from the byline.

Five minutes later, the Gills wrapped up the points, as man-of-the-match Marlon King delicately volleyed Osborne's through ball past Millwall goalkeeper Tony Warner.

Just prior to the winning goal, Steven Reid struck the crossbar for the Lions with a powerful drive. But Gillingham also hit the woodwork in the first half, when Iffy Onoura headed Osborne's free-kick over via the top of the bar.

Millwall were riding their luck when, in the 65th minute, Gillingham had a goal ruled out for offside after Kinghad netted with a rising left-foot shot.

However, the visitors were lucky to finish the game with the full compliment of players after Barry Ashby scythed down Paul Ifill in full flight. Referee Mr Brandwood leniently decided a yellow card was sufficient for such a bad challenge.

Bizarrely, both team were wearing Millwall colours, the Lions wearing their customary blue and white home kit, while Gillingham donned the all green strip.

Andy Hessenthaler explained after the game: "Bob Lewin, our kit man, made a mistake by bringing the wrong colour shirts.

"At 1.40pm, we realised we had blue shirts, and amber shorts and socks.

"But perhaps we need to wear green every week, as we showed great character to come back after going a goal down against the run of play.

"It was the first goal we've conceded in four games."

After defeating Palace 3-0 in midweek, Hessenthaler was confident their formation would work again: "4-3-3 has been more positive for us, but when we defend it's like 4-5-1 with Ipoua and King dropping back.

"It makes them harder to for defenders to pick up. Mark McGhee saw us play this system against Palace and didn't make any adjustments to his side.

"We may change the formation for certain matches, but at the moment it's working."

Millwall boss McGhee blamed a below par performance for the defeat: "We didn't play well. We have no complaints about the result, we just had an off day.

"We were at the root of our defeat, as we didn't quite look ourselves."

"There seemed to be post-mortems going on all over the field during the game, which really isn't a normal thing for us. It was a bit niggly and we were out of sorts.

"We're in danger of believing our own publicity, when we need to be focussed on immediate tasks.

"This is no time to be talking about the play-offs. It's literally one game at a time, and we have a long hard winter ahead of us."

Millwall face Bradford City at Valley Parade this Saturday, at 3pm.

November 27, 2001 12:21