Right then, I’ll be off. There’s no sugar coating it, tonight was not a classic. But it does set up Monday’s second leg very nicely, and maybe that’ll be a cracker. Possibly. Here’s Aaron Bower’s match report again. Bye!

























Key events
Right then, I’ll be off. There’s no sugar coating it, tonight was not a classic. But it does set up Monday’s second leg very nicely, and maybe that’ll be a cracker. Possibly. Here’s Aaron Bower’s match report again. Bye!
Alex Neil has a word with Sky. He thinks, unsurprisingly, that his team were better than the other lot.
I thought we were the better side. So probably not satisfied if I’m honest, we probably wanted to take a lead from the game given we were better for most of the game. There was times we could have moved the ball a bit better. I think if you said to me earlier in the season that we’d have one game at home to get us into the playoff final and it was all square, I’d have took it. I wouldn’t necessarily say we’ve got the edge because the way Hull play, they soak up pressure and hit you on the counter, they’re happy.
On the disallowed goal:
I thought it was really, really soft. They were both at it. Throughout the game he let a lot of things go. It’ll be interesting to get his views back on it.
Aaron Bower endured tonight’s game for us, and here’s his on-the-whistle report:
The 40th edition of the EFL playoffs started not so much with a bang, but with the kind of tension-filled evening we have come to expect from the business end of the season. And at the end of a gripping evening in East Yorkshire, the respective Premier League dreams of both Hull City and Millwall remains alive ahead of rivalries being renewed in south London on Monday night.
At half-time in two-legged ties like these, it is perhaps common to take stock and assess who is better placed to get the job done and reach the final. The smart answer here would be Millwall, given they head back south level at 0-0 in the tie and they have the chance to get the job done in front of their own fans.
But Hull, who have silenced their critics after making the Championship’s top six while under a transfer embargo, have won at Millwall once this season already. There is a fair argument we didn’t see the best from either side in this first leg, with the tension palpable all evening as both sides perhaps knew one mistake could be fatal.
Much more here:
Eight goals in two games between these teams during the regular season. And then, 21 shots tonight, one save of note, one disallowed goal, and not a lot else (*shakes fists at the heavens*).
It was tight. It was tense. It was not very good. All square, and Millwall now effectively have a one-off home game against Hull on Monday with a place at Wembley on the line.
90+5 mins: Much of stoppage time is stoppage, as Hull prepare to take a free-kick from their own half. Eventually Coyle pumps it forward, Millwall head it away, and the referee blows his whistle.
90+3 mins: Hull have the ball on the left wing as we enter the final moments. Crowd noise builds. The ball finally comes in. It goes nowhere near an orange shirt and runs out of play, and the linesman flags for offside anyway.
90+1 mins: There will be four minutes of stoppage time.
90 mins: Ivanovic’s long-range shot hits Hughes on the back and bounces out of play to give Millwall another corner.
88 mins: A fourth Hull substitution sees John Lundstram replace Slater.
87 mins: There’s shirt-pulling by both players, but while Hughes’s tug doesn’t achieve much, I think Crama’s stops Hughes challenging Leonard. Fun as a goal would have been, a very good decision methinks.
86 mins: Something really interesting happens! Millwall cross from the left, and Leonard turns it in! But the referee’s whistle blows, and he seems to have spotted a foul by Crama on his fellow No4, Hughes.
84 mins: The game has become a bit chaotic in its old age. Perhaps it’s not too late for something really interesting to happen.
82 mins: Another substitution, Millwall’s Alfie Doughty coming on for Zak Sturge.
79 mins: A proper attack now! Millwall break at pace, but Neghli’s pass to Cundle is a bit underpowered and instead of opening up a shooting chance it forces him to check back, he pushes it back to Neghli, and his shot goes wide.
76 mins: A goalkeeper has had to make a save! Azeez cuts in from the right and from the very corner of the penalty area sends a low shot curling towards the far corner, through a variety of legs and bodies, and Pandur dives to his right and flings out a hand to stop it!
74 mins: Millwall bring Bannan and Cundle on for De Norre and Ballo. Hull replace Gelhardt with Kieran Dowell at the same time.
71 mins: That’s two interesting things in three minutes. Maybe the tide is turning.
70 mins: And Hirakawa nearly sets up a goal with his first touch! He produces a lovely cross from the left, McBurnie gets on the end of it, and he glances his header across goal and wide.

70 mins: Substitutions! It’s Hirakawa and Joseph on, Millar and Belloumi off for Hull.
69 mins: Millwall have a shot from distance that isn’t terrible! Neghli picks up the ball in midfield, advances, keeps going because nobody tries to stop him, keeps going a bit further, and then hits a low, hard left-footed shot that flies across goal and wide off the outside of the far post.
68 mins: “I love your opening photo of Milwall’s Tony Cascarino facing up to David O’Leary in front of a crowd of … well, just one visible punter!” writes Justin Kavanagh. “It’s like that old joke about the guy who opened an Irish pub on the moon (Jack Charlton certainly would have, had he thought of it) but had to close it after a week. Why? No atmosphere.”
66 mins: So, anyone got any good weekend plans?
63 mins: Crama has perhaps the night’s worst shot, and there have been a lot of bad shots. From a good 35 yards out, he misses the target by at least 25.
60 mins: Nearly a thing! McBurnie gathers the ball on Hull’s right. Millar in the middle has his hands in the air, demanding an early centre. The ball does come in, but Millar a) decides not to shoot; b) tries to backheel flick the ball back to a teammate on the edge of the area but gets it wrong and basically clears it instead; and c) is offside anyway.
58 mins: A lovely ball in from that set piece, but nobody gets on the end of it and it runs out for a throw-in.
57 mins: Belloumi pokes the ball away from Sturge, but then pulls the Millwall full-back back, giving them a free-kick.
54 mins: Millar cuts onto his right foot and curls a cross straight out of play. Half time hasn’t brought an immediate improvement in quality, sadly.
52 mins: De Norre becomes the first name in the referee’s notebook, for grappling with Crooks and bringing him down.
51 mins: Another off-target shot from distance, this time from Hull’s Coyle. It’s a decent effort, nicely hit, but no dice.
49 mins: Egan and Ballo both go for for the same ball, with full commitment, not far outside the Hull penalty area. It’s immediately obvious that one will win the race, the other will concede a free kick. Egan gets to the ball and gets a bit of a kick, but he recovers swiftly enough.
48 mins: Cooper gives the ball away again, but atones by getting in the way of Belloumi. Hull want a free kick, but don’t get one.
46 mins: Peeeeep! The home side get the ball rolling.

The players are back out and almost ready to get the game back under way, with no halftimely substitutions to report.
A bit of half-time reading, in the shape of a Sid Lowe piece about the shambolic and violent end to Real Madrid’s season:
45+2 mins: And that’s all for now. The first three minutes were wonderful. Belloumi’s run and shot in the second of those minutes was very much the highlight. Time for a sit-down (or, in my case, a stand-up) and a re-set.
45+1 mins: In fact they flummox everyone by taking it short, work a cross into the box, and Pandur catches it.
45+1 mins: There will only be one minute of stoppage time. Millwall are going to spend some of it chucking another long throw into the box.
44 mins: The great thing about this half is that it is almost over. Millar takes on Leonard on the Hull left, and sprints enthusiastically out of play. Goal kick. “Maybe the lack of visible orange in the crowd can be explained by the fact that tigers rely on their camouflage to remain hidden and mysterious?” ponders Peter Oh.
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