Defender Naomi Cole was forced to go in goal as the Lionesses drew at Oxford United on Sunday leading manager Dan Mlinar to state his pride at how his team had played.
Millwall had lost their last four league encounters and they ended that bad run when Cole donned the gloves after an injury to stopper Sarah Quantrill. Mlinar said: “It just shows how dominant we were in the second half – she [Cole] came out, she swept and she did really well.
“It wasn’t from last-ditch defending or from good defensive play that we were able to protect her but it was because we were on the front foot.
“We had possession of the ball, we were pushing them back and pressing them high so we kept them as far away from our goal as possible and it worked a treat.” Oxford were ahead after just four minutes when Katie Stanley’s cross was cleared as far as Helen King, whose low shot found the bottom corner.
The hosts doubled their lead when Stanley set up Ella Franklin-Fraiture and she lofted a brilliant effort over Quantrill from 20 yards with the ball clipping the bar on its way in.
Millwall gave themselves hope in the second half as an unmarked Grace Fisk headed in a superb free kick by Ashlee Hincks just after the hour mark.
The Lionesses then drew level with nine minutes remaining as Cole’s long clearance went all the way through to Rinsola Babajide and her shot from just inside the box sped into the net.
Last Wednesday the Lionesses got their FA Continental Tyres Cup campaign off to a great start when a Fliss Gibbons hat-trick saw Millwall win an eight goal thriller on home turf.
The other goals for the home side on the night were netted by Ciara Sherwood and Babajide. For the latest Lionesses news visit millwall.fawsl.com.