Millwall 2-2 Hull City: Joe Bryan earns point for Lions in topsy-turvy affair

Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Millwall and Hull City at The Den on Saturday | Joe Bryan scores second-half equaliser for Lions after taking early lead then falling behind.

Saturday 7 October 2023 18:52, UK

Joe Bryan's first goal for Millwall earned them a 2-2 draw in a frenetic Championship encounter with Hull at The Den.

After Jaden Philogene and Adama Traore had turned the game around for Hull following Duncan Watmore's early opener, Bryan struck to secure a point.

The Lions' home form has been patchy, winning just two of their last eight matches, but they took the lead through Watmore in the eighth minute.

Bryan's free-kick was met with a miscued clearance by a City defender and the Lions attacker was able to squeeze his shot past Ryan Allsop at his near post to open his account for the campaign.

The Lions had started confidently and Luton loanee Allan Campbell drove into the side-netting soon after.

But that assured start only lasted until the 25th minute. Millwall were unpicked by one pinpoint long ball by Hull centre-back Sean McLoughlin, Philogene timed his run perfectly to get in behind the hosts' centre-back pairing of Jake Cooper and Wes Harding and threaded his finish beyond Bartosz Bialkowski.

The visitors then looked a threat with nearly every attack they mounted. Bialkowski scrambled the ball around the upright when Liam Delap's cross deflected off Cooper.

Another defensive lapse saw Hull take a 30th-minute lead. Danny McNamara's misplaced header back to Bialkowski was seized on by Philogene, the young Tigers winger deftly cut back inside the Millwall full-back and cued up Traore to gleefully lash in from close range.

It could have got worse for the Lions before the break. Scott Twine went close with a free-kick and then could not quite make contact with Delap's delivery.

Lions boss Gary Rowett reacted by switching to a back five and made a double change with Tom Bradshaw and Brooke Norton-Cuffy replacing Watmore and McNamara.

A Casper De Norre strike was tipped over by Allsop but the summer signing from OH Leuven then assisted Bryan for the 54th-minute leveller, with the former Fulham and Bristol City left-back showing great composure to cut inside a marker and send a low drive past Allsop.

The second period belonged to Millwall as they pressed for a winner, Bradshaw saw his header from a Bryan free-kick fly narrowly past the far post.

There was a big chance in stoppage time as two Lions substitutes combined. Romaine Esse put Aidomo Emakhu through but the Republic of Ireland U21 international thrashed his effort over from inside the penalty area.

Hull, who had been unbeaten in eight league games before their midweek loss to Ipswich, looked happy to settle for a point.

The managers

Millwall's Gary Rowett:

"We responded really well to going behind. We have to make the changes tactically, formation-wise and personnel-wise and that did the trick second half.

"We needed a bit more composure and maybe we could have got the third. I didn't think we had amazing chances, but we had one or two where maybe we could have won the game.

"I'm really pleased with the response. We didn't cope with the two goals very well again and I spoke to the players about that at half-time.

"Hull are a really good side, Liam's done a great job. They're really hard to play against. When you press then they just bounce it round you.

"We were too passive. We went a goal up and their two goals were two very poor moments from us. The first one we let a runner go between two players unopposed and the second one was a mix up.

"All you can do then is respond. We didn't want another home defeat because I think that would have been really damaging."

Hull's Liam Rosenior:

"It feels like two points dropped, absolutely. So many aspects of our play are so good. What we need to improve on is killing games whilst we're on top. We haven't done that this season and we should have more points as a result.

"The one benefit is I've got a great young group here and they're learning. We made young mistakes in and out of possession. That's the risk you have when you've got young players.

"They need to learn quickly and I need to learn and analyse quickly in terms of how to help them.

"I think everybody in the stadium can see the potential in this team today. The frustrating thing for me is we've come such a long way and we should have won this game.

"My first game was here and we had to dog it out with 10 men. The team's evolving, we're getting better.

"The next part of that evolution is killing that game off. I promise you we will win a lot of games playing this way this season. They threw the kitchen sink at us, but we need to be braver to play."