Millwall 6 - 0 Palace

Saturday July 29 2000 - Friendly

Well, where do we start with this. There I was queuing up for my first ever trip to the New Den, and while waiting to get in I heard the roar of the crowd cheering the first Millwall goal, scored by Neil Harris.

By the time I took my seat, there were five minutes gone, and collective sighs all around of: "Here we go again"

I had not been to the other friendlies, nor seen Palace on their China tour, so without having any point of comparison, I did not realise that those previous defeats were one-offs, but they had now become the norm.

Still, with Fan playing well in defence, alongside Linighan and Thomson, Mullins and Black in the midfield, I still felt we had a chance.

Palace played with no conviction,co-ordination or confidence, Mullins and Black carelessly giving the ball away numerous times in the first 20 minutes, leaving our defence under pressure for long periods of the first half.

Coming up to the 1/2hr mark and the Portuguese trialist picks up a long ball from Tim Cahill and bang!!!! 2-0.

Matt Gregg in goal had no chance, but he did try to present Millwall with chance after chance as his gloves seem to have been made with Teflon and his confidence is all but shot to peices...

Then, at the death of the first half, as simple corner was converted by Harris again for the score at half time to be 3-0, and off we trotted to the bar to get refreshments as dire as the Palace performance which preceded it.

The simple fact was that Palace had no shots on goal in the first half of any note. McKenzie got away from markers and looked a bit sharp but when he crossed it, where was Morrison????? - about 15 yards behind the play and offering very little support. Was he fit and is he up for the challenge this season. Not on this performance.

Back on for the second half, and I was hoping we could "do a Stockport" and return from the dead...

Return from the dead, if we were on life support machines in the first half, someone had obviously signed off the euthanasia papers to allow us to die...

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