Ben May well make it Opposition Report From The Terrace

First of all, I’ve been talking up Ben May all week. I know we can’t expect too much, with him being 18 and all, but this kid really has got what it takes.

At Watford they tried to rough him up, but came unstuck. I knew Ipswich would come to the Den to play football, and I honestly thought we’d beat them.

We even out-footballed them though, and that surprised me. We certainly deserved all three points, and when Ben May stroked us ahead from close range following a low Neil Harris cross I expected us to hang on.

To be fair, it was a tall order. We had 86 minutes to go against a top side. But Paul Ifill was still in his purple patch, giving Jamie Clapham a complete run-around.

But Clapham came to Ipswich’s rescue, clearing off the line, after a scramble just after the break.

Dave Livermore’s free kick was headed against the post and in the ensuing melee, Harris had a shot blocked only for Tim Cahill to be denied by Clapham’s hand.

There were a number of unseen handballs, but worse of all was Cahill’s headed 'goal' from an Andy Roberts cross being given offside in the first half.

To his credit, Millwall boss Mark McGhee didn’t make a big deal out of it. Ifill was offside and the ball was heading in his direction, so under the new FA guidelines, McGhee thought the ref was probably right to interpret him as interfering with play.

McGhee also heaped glowing praise on Roberts after the game and said he realised May was ready for first team football after Kevin O’Callaghan’s recommendation and the fact that he’s prepared to 'bash up' our own centre backs in training.

Ipswich’s goal was a virtually unstoppable effort from Darren Bent, but Millwall should be anything but downhearted after more than match the division favourites in virtually every department.