BORO v Millwall

Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough

7.45 pm, Tuesday September 15, 2026

So, here we are. My DiasBoro Preview Debut. And it aligns with a fixture and a team that carries a fair number of memories for me...

It's a game about lions. Two lions vs one if you wish to talk about it in terms of mascots, with our Roary and our River up against Zampa. One where we will hope that Boro show real lion-heartedness to come away with all three points.

But, of course, it won't be easy. It never is with Millwall. For history suggests that they are the kind of club who can really put a metaphorical spanner in your works when you least expect it, and that doesn't just apply to Boro.

My earliest memory of Millwall, apart from seeing them pretty close to Boro in a Football League sticker album and learning about then future Premier League regulars Kasey Keller and Kenny Cunningham, is from the first big cupset I can recall witnessing, where the Lions in blue put the seal on a 2-0 FA Cup replay triumph against the Gunners in red at Highbury with an absolute rocket from young Irishman and future Liverpool winger Mark Kennedy. The Lions' manager at the time was a certain past Ireland captain and future Ireland manager, one Mick McCarthy, whose departure from the club during 1995-96 coincided with a downward spiral which saw them relegated from the second tier after leading it in December 1995. You could say they out-Boro'd Boro, though to be fair the downward turn began before McCarthy left.

A player right in the middle of that Millwall fall - Millfall? - was one Uwe Fuchs, Boro's on loan hero and crucial short-term goalscoring catalyst of 1994-95. He isn't, of course, alone in being a famous or well-known forward-thinking representative for both clubs - most recently, and perhaps most painfully, there has been Josh Coburn, but Duncan Watmore has also worn the Millwall blue, as has Scott McDonald. At the back, popular social media presence Danny Batth was spotted among their substitutes for their 3-1 defeat to Tony Mowbray's Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.

Millwall, home and away, have also provided the opportunity for many Boro heroes or heroics. Particularly during the Aitor Karanka era. It was at the New Den when an injury to fan favourite Muzzy Carayol ensured Emmanuel Ledesma entered the fray and got the Karanka train up and running with a spectacular opening goal in a 2-0 win. Jelle Vossen's equally spectacular hat-trick at the same venue the following year, and Patrick Bamford's telegenic opener in a comfortable 3-0 home win which took Boro to the top of the Championship table in March 2015, were no less memorable.

And more than a decade later we stand to go top again if we are to win again. But even our firepower and fortitude, the former delightfully exhibited in the first half against Norwich and the latter joyously found right at the end of the game for a happy finale, brings with it no promise of success tomorrow. It is still early enough and cagey enough in the season that while a Boro win could take the team top, Alex Neil's Millwall have the opportunity to close the gap on us to one point with a win of their own.

Which leads me to my primary observations before the game - will this be another tale of half measures? And will we find a proper shield?

It's been a common pattern across the majority, if not the entirety, of Kim Hellberg's tenure that the team has quite often played dominant if not spectacular halves of football, but these have regularly been countered by poor and lacklustre displays in the other half of the game. 

Whereas last season I would have put it down to, perhaps, lack of depth in the squad, this season seems to feature a squad that have more depth, are more individually and technically gifted, but are less fluid and coherent.

Achieving a win after surrendering a lead against Norwich was an admirable achievement, but surrendering that two goal lead in the first place was infuriating. And while the West Brom win was a commendable victory, it appeared to come from turning to individual skill and breaking up the opposition's pattern rather than establishing a coherent team pattern ourselves.

Such a pattern would benefit hugely from a "shield", or a holding midfielder, especially as Boro don't quite seem to have a consistent defensive line-up at present. While Nicky Bailey wasn't amazing, he did perform that function for us under Mogga throughout 2011 and performed it well. And while the Grant Leadbitter and Adam Clayton axis may well have frustrated footballing romantics, it was, again, hugely effective. Perhaps Connor Barron is the answer?

We have to be fair though. It is only September. There is time to address these issues. And we do have a 100% home record and a great chance to top the table against a side who have lost three in four and are currently injury hit, with one of the casualties being the unfortunate Coburn.

Though, given that the next Riverside fixture following Millwall isn't scheduled for nearly a month - Saturday October 10, to be exact - you get the feeling that this is really a chance we have to take. Still, I'm hopeful of a good performance and victory.

Over to you, everyone...