Millwall 2-0 Luton: Lions ease to win to move into play-off places
- Published
Jake Cooper (right) thought he had got the last touch on Matt Smith's (left) header but it was given as an own goal by Martin Cranie
Millwall moved into the Championship play-off places with a convincing win over Luton Town.
The Lions took a deserved lead right on the stroke of half-time when Martin Cranie diverted Matt Smith's header into his own goal from close range.
Connor Mahoney made it 2-0 with a well struck effort from the edge of the area that went in off the post.
Luton struggled to break the hosts down but nearly got a goal back late on when Bartosz Bialkowski did well to save from Cranie's instinctive flick towards goal.
Gary Rowett's side were totally dominant throughout and perhaps ought to have won by more than two.
A lovely flick from Mason Bennett teed up Ryan Leonard but he skewed his shot across goal before Smith hit the post with a header.
They eventually broke the deadlock with the last kick of the first half when Cranie put the ball into his own net under pressure from Jake Cooper.
Jed Wallace should have extended their lead after the break but he blasted over after another neat exchange of passes with Bennett.
Nathan Jones' men struggled to create and their first shot of note did not come until the 60th minute when sub Joe Morrell fired narrowly wide from long range.
Mahoney wrapped the win up with a crisp low strike from the edge of the area before Cranie came close to making amends for his earlier own goal.
Millwall boss 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.
Luton boss 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.
"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.
"We've been disrupted heavily in the past four or five days which has coincided with two defeats.
"It's carnage at times, this is the world we live in in a truncated season. We're trying to stay safe and do the right things but it's difficult."