Millwall 2 Hull City 1 – Shane Ferguson scores two stunners as Lions progress in FA Cup

BY JAKE SANDERS

Shane Ferguson scored two wonderful goals to complete a late turnaround and send Millwall through to the FA Cup fourth at the expense of Hull City at The Den.

 

It looked as if Jon Toral’s 52nd-minute goal was going to settle the tie, but Ferguson stepped off the bench to send The Den crazy with two stunners in the space of three minutes.

 

The victory was Millwall’s seventh in their last eight FA Cup home games and sees them move into the fourth round for the third successive year.

 

The game started like a tie that neither side seemed that bothered about.

 

Apart from a Kevin Stewart header that sailed comfortably wide, almost nothing happened in terms of goalmouth action during the opening 30 minutes.

 

But that soon changed. Firstly, Aiden O’Brien fired wide after Tom Elliott flicked on before Millwall had two bites at the cherry to take the lead from a corner.

 

Debutant Alex Pearce was first to have a go, but his back-post header was cleared off the line. The loose ball fell to O’Brien, who looked bound to score, but his close-range header was somehow clawed out from under his own crossbar by George Long in the Tigers goal.

Amongst those opportunities, Jordan Archer was forced into a great save to deny Todd Kane giving Hull an undeserved lead.

 

The best chance of the half would fall to Elliott on 32 minutes, though. The dangerous Jed Wallace – who was causing problems on both flanks – found space on the right and picked out Elliott in the box, but Millwall’s striker couldn’t sort his feet out and Long claimed.

 

Despite their first-half superiority, the Lions fell behind just seven minutes into the second period. Nouha Dicko pulled away on the right and picked out Toral, who accepted the gift and prodded home from close-range.

 

That lead was almost doubled on 54 minutes, but Dicko could not head home from Eric Lichaj’s right-wing cross.

 

O’Brien had two chances to bring Millwall level but was firstly denied by Long before striking the post when nipping in at the near post after more great work from Wallace.

 

It looked as if the Lions’ would exit the FA Cup, but Ferguson came up trumps with two fantastic goals in the last 10 minutes.

 

His first was from 25-yards. He cut in from the right and curled a spectacular effort into the far corner and just three minutes later he was at it again, bending a free-kick into the other corner after Ryan Leonard was fouled on the edge of the box.

 

IMAGES BY BRIAN TONKS