Joe Edwards left cursing Millwall luck after late Huddersfield leveller

Posted Sunday, December 17, 2023 by PA

Millwall head coach Joe Edwards was left wondering what his side have to do to win at home after they were denied right at the death by Huddersfield in a 1-1 draw.

The Lions were within seconds of just a second victory in 12 games and their first at The Den since September after Brooke Norton-Cuffy had bundled in an untidy opener that was in keeping with a lot of the action.

Instead, they were left cursing their luck after Delano Burgzorg buried a penalty in the seventh minute of stoppage time to earn the Terriers an equaliser they had hardly threatened.

The draw moved both teams two points clear of the relegation zone, thanks to more late drama elsewhere between fellow strugglers Sheffield Wednesday and QPR.

Edwards said: “We looked like we could have got the second but as we know whenever that scoreline is 1-0 you’re at risk, particularly when you’re in this run that we’re in.

“To lose it like that to probably an unnecessary set-piece down in the corner, then a deflection onto someone’s hand, without feeling sorry for ourselves, it feels like that’s how it’s going for us at the moment.

“We’ve conceded goals at Ipswich and Leicester where we’ve got six bodies in front of the ball and it’s deflected in or going through and it’s in our net.

“The ball goes in our box and that [the penalty] happens and it’s incredibly frustrating because I thought, in what was probably a poor game, we were the better team that looked like the home team going to try and win it.

“I thought we deserved to in general and it feels like two points dropped, for sure.”

In a tense first half that lacked quality, the closest either team came was when Millwall’s Zian Flemming had an effort from 25 yards pushed away by Huddersfield goalkeeper Lee Nicholls.

It was the Lions who broke through after 57 minutes when Nicholls saved Tom Bradshaw’s header before getting down to Norton-Cuffy’s follow-up but he couldn’t prevent the Arsenal loanee forcing in his second attempt.

Soon after Nicholls was forced off with a head injury, his replacement Chris Maxwell made a double save from fellow substitutes Duncan Watmore and Joe Bryan.

This turned out to be vital as Huddersfield were awarded the latest of penalties when George Saville handled Josh Koroma’s shot and Burgzorg held his nerve.

Huddersfield boss Darren Moore said: “The boys faced a bit of adversity but such is the character and the spirit within the team to keep the commitment and endeavour and keep pushing forward.

“I took the captain off [Jonathan Hogg] to get another attacker on the pitch and it’s always nice when you get your just rewards.

“I know it was late in the game but we always showed an attacking intent to come here and respond from Tuesday night [against Preston].

“I suppose it was points shared but from our point of view it was what we deserved.

“We didn’t feel we did ourselves any justice on Tuesday night in terms of how we approached the game, so we wanted to be more on the front foot today.

“We wanted to be showing more of ourselves and I thought they showed that but it was the right response from our perspective from Tuesday night.”