No taming of Lions' roar

That was a nervy, exciting, raucous, nailbiting and ultimately frustrating afternoon but one that I won't forget in hurry. Drawing 4-4 at home against a side who played the majority of the contest with ten men was disappointing but having fought from two down, I am not going to overly quibble.

Due to the delay of trains at London Bridge, I was absent for the opening junctures of the first period. I did, however, hear the Millwall jubilation in response to Steve Morison's initial strike as I was in the Valley toilets, where I was greeted by a bizarre lumpy-green liquid on the toilet bowl but enough of that.

When I did make it to my seat, things got even worse. The corner that preceded our visitors' second should not have been but when you defend like that you deserve to be punished.

The Addicks battled back through two definite penalties, the only surprising element that the sent-off Jimmy Abdou was not joined in the dressing room by Andy Frampton whose lunge on David Mooney for the premier spot-kick did not even warrant a yellow, apparently.

A sumptuous strike from Bailey, below-par defending from us, incisive Millwall penetration, an own goal and five minutes of injury time - the match made for an animated spectacle and culminated with a fair result. Not the right one but a fair one.

I am not going to make a habit of this but huge credit must go to Kenny Jackett's men for the way their red card was used as a spur and not a deterrent and with players like Steve Morison, David Martin and a few other first teamers to come back, they could quite easily gatecrash the play-offs.

As for the Addicks, the lead over Norwich has been cut to four but with the Canaries hosting an invigorated Millwall on Boxing Day, a win over Swindon - which will be hard to accomplish, mind you - could extend that gap once more. If it's half as exciting as yesterday, it'll polish off Christmas quite nicely.