Welcome to the Millwall v Newcastle United preview.
Tuesday 8 September and an 8pm kick-off.
The Toon turn their attention back to the League Cup on Tuesday night when they travel to Millwall for the first time in thirty-three years.
This will be the fifth straight match on live TV for NUFC who will be desperate to not only perpetuate their unbeaten start to the season but also take a step closer to emulating our class of 2025 who won the whole thing at Wembley.
Millwall will see this as a potential opportunity to take a huge scalp and perhaps even warm-up for next season as they eye promotion from the Championship. They’re currently only two points from the top of the table at this admittedly early stage of the season.
Newcastle’s fine recent record in the League Cup has seen us make the final in 2023, the quarter-final in the 2023/24 season, become champions in 2025, before semi-finalists in 2026. This is a vast improvement on what had previously been a fairly miserable competition for the black and whites.
Form
Newcastle have played four matches so far this season, winning two and drawing two. We started with a highly-controversial 2-2 draw against Liverpool when only an injury time penalty robbed us of a deserved three points. We went on to come from behind to beat West Brom 3-2 in the last round of the League Cup before beating Spurs 2-0 away from home and drawing 2-2 at home to Bournemouth. We’ve scored nine goals so far and conceded six.
Millwall have endured a stop-start campaign so far. They’ve won three and lost two in their opening five league games, beating Bristol City, Norwich and Bolton without conceding, whilst enduring heavy defeats to both Southampton and Wrexham. In the League Cup they drew with QPR before winning on penalties and also came out on top against Cambridge United. They’ve scored twelve goals and conceded nine in their seven competitive games this season.
Last time out
Newcastle hosted Bournemouth in the early kick-off on Saturday and were extremely fortunate to come away with a point. Behind early on due to sloppy defending, Newcastle were barely at the races when a Thiaw own goal put the Cherries on top. Thankfully, Harvey Barnes blasted home a stunning goal soon after to reduce the arrears and give the Toon a sliver of hope. It looked like this would be in vain when a frustrating second half had just a few minutes remaining but substitute Jacob Ramsey popped up with a well-taken effort at the Gallowgate End to secure a point. This was a jaded performance from NUFC with too many players struggling to make an impact. The fact we went two goals down and had to compete with brainless refereeing decisions made it a decent draw under the circumstances but we’ll be looking for much improved performances going forward.
Stat attack!
– This will be Newcastle’s first ever visit to the New Den, the stadium opening in 1993 just after the Toon achieved promotion to the Premier League under Kevin Keegan.
-The two sides haven’t met for a first team match in thirty-three years but did meet in the 2014 FA Youth Cup, United running out 3-1 winners.
-Newcastle have only travelled to Millwall nine times in their entire history, winning three, drawing one and losing five.
Memorable match
In 92/93, Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle United took Division One by storm on the way to promotion to the Premier League. Winning their first eleven matches meant that the Toon didn’t even taste defeat until the end of October, going top of the league and staying there all season. The home match against Millwall had seen some rare dropped points for NUFC who had to be content with a 1-1 draw. They would travel to The Den in April 1993 looking for revenge.
Millwall had the better of the first half and took the lead after just eighteen minutes when a cross from the right-hand side drifted over Pav and the Toon were very lucky to be just the one goal behind at half-time as Millwall came close on a number of other occasions, including hitting the post twice in quick succession. Thankfully the second half saw a vast improvement and NUFC were on level terms on the sixty-fifth minute through a well-taken Lee Clark strike. Even better was to follow for the travelling Toon Army when Andy Cole put Newcastle ahead for the first time that afternoon, securing a 2-1 win. Newcastle would go on to win the remaining four matches of the season including a memorable derby victory over arch-rivals Sunderland as they achieved promotion as champions, eight points clear of runners up West Ham United. This was the start of something special for NUFC who came heartbreakingly close to becoming champions of England within the next three seasons but that’s a story for another day. Final score: Millwall 1-2 Newcastle.
Played for both
Darren Huckerby signed from Lincoln in 1995 but his chances of career development at the Toon were massively hindered by Keegan’s decision to scrap the reserve team due to a rule that they’d have to play some matches at St James’ Park. A little known fact is that his signing inadvertently brought about Alan Shearer’s first ever NUFC goal. Part of the deal was that Newcastle would travel to Lincoln in the pre-season of 1996 and by that time we’d signed Mr Shearer who converted a penalty on his debut in a 2-0 win (Albert adding the second). Darren only made two appearances for Newcastle and was unlucky not to find the net during an impressive performance at home to Chelsea in the FA Cup. He went to Millwall on loan and scored three goals in six league games before a transfer to Coventry City where he scored his first goal for the Sky Blues against…Newcastle.
Shane Ferguson came through the Newcastle United Academy and looked the real deal when making a handful of appearances in 10/11. Unfortunately, a pre-season injury stunted his development and the next season he’d have to wait until December to play in the Premier League. He made a quality start to the 12/13 season so it was a surprise when he went on loan to Birmingham City for eighteen months. He then went to Rangers (again on loan) before spending six months on loan at Millwall where he played twenty-five league games, this loan move was successful and Ferguson signed permanently in Jan 2016, making a further one hundred and fifty-five league appearances over a five year period.
Andros Townsend played thirteen times for Rafa Benitez in 2016, scoring four goals. The highlight of his time on Tyneside was a belting free-kick to secure a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace in our ultimately fruitless quest to escape relegation. Not up for the fight to help us out of the Championship, he signed for Crystal Palace in the aftermath of our demotion. Townsend had previously been on loan to Millwall from Tottenham Hotspur scoring two goals in eleven appearances.
Managers
Matthias Jaissle after a 2-2 draw at home to Bournemouth: “I have mixed feelings over the result. If we performed to our best level today, then we could have ended up with three points. We couldn’t match Bournemouth’s intensity in the first-half and the two goals we conceded were a bit slapstick. However, we could have avoided that, if we had won our duels earlier in the phase of play. I’m proud that we showed the right reaction, as it’s not easy to come back from 2-0 down, and at least we got one point in the end. We couldn’t match Bournemouth’s intensity in the first half and conceded twice. That’s something you could avoid but I’m proud of the team to have shown the reaction.”
Photo by The Mag
Alex Neil after a 4-0 win over Bolton Wanderers: “Today was really important. We had a good reaction. It was important that we got back to basics. My job right now is to try and be effective rather than pretty. Having said that, I thought the front two were a real handful in the game. When we got the second goal, that settled us right down. Then from there, the sending-off happens. It opens the pitch up. We then change it and take the pace of the top end and put it wide with the two lads who are running off the sides, and I thought that caused them a lot of problems. So all in all, it was a good day for us. I think we needed it.”
Charity
As it is an away match, Newcastle United fans will not be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end, for the food bank. However, you can still help out and all online cash donations are very much appreciated. For further info and/or to donate to the food bank online.
Prediction
Newcastle will see this as a huge opportunity to both make the next round of the cup and continue an excellent start to the season. Millwall are not to be underestimated however, despite their huge injury problems, and will be relishing the chance to test themselves against Premier League opposition. I think this will be a good match on the whole with the Toon squeezing through to round four. Millwall 1-1 Newcastle (Newcastle win on penalties).