A look at our Wembley opponents Part 2 – Gregory

After my neighbour complaining a short while ago because I have stunk the entire street out due to cooking battered whitebait with my kitchen window open, rather than listening to him, I opened my window wider then I was just thinking of some of the talented players we will be up against this weekend and one player that I hope will miss the game is Lee Gregory. As my neighbour went back inside closing his window and door, I was left pondering how City will handle the Yorkshireman and just thinking can our defence close him out as easy as my neighbour closed my dinner out of his personal atmosphere.

No matter what my neighbour has done in his house, my delicious dinner will prevail and make its presence known for the next couple of hours at least, as I am sure Gregory will do at Wembley. So why am I wanting Lee Gregory to miss the play off final, am I being vindictive, am I horrible towards him on a personal scale, do I dislike him? The answer is, he ain’t half bad and the odds for him to not score will prove lower than him to get onto the score sheet.

Lee Gregory – where and how many
Let’s take a break down of who and where he has played and scored for excluding early career loan spells.

Millwall – 140 games – 54 goals
Halifax – 155 games – 95 goals
Mansfield – 3 games – 1 goal

Seasonal stats
2016/17 – 46 games – 18 goals
2015/16 – 53 games – 27 goals
2014/15 – 41 games – 9 goals
2013/14 – 40 games – 32 goals
2012/13 – 50 games – 26 goals
2011/12 – 40 games – 21 goals
2010/11 – 25 games – 16 goals

So as you can see, Gregory is capable of scoring goals, apart from the relegation season at Millwall a couple of seasons ago, on average he is a 20 a season goal scorer over the past 7 years, so consistent he is, dangerous he is, a natural scorer he is. Early in his career he was loaned out to Glapwell and scored 6 goals in a 7-1 win over Willenhall Town. So how much did he cost Millwall to pry him away from Halifax? £250,000, a bargain. At 28 years old, he will have about 5 years still left in him, and has each season ticks by, the goals are still coming, but for how long? And how much can Millwall’s resolve be tested for such a talented goal machine as he is approaching his 30s? But if he stays loyal to Millwall and Millwall to him, if he continues to average 20 goals a season, he could overtake Neil Harris as Millwall’s all time leading scorer, Gregory would need to score a further 85 goals to achieve that.

This season
In 46 games Gregory has scored 18 goals from 40 shots on targets which means every 2nd shot on target he sticks the ball in the back of the net. With 63 fouls to his name and shown the yellow card 7 times this season, with the law of averages we can expect a foul or 2 from him at Wembley, but I would like to add, he hasn’t been sent off at all this season, his discipline was impeccable last season only been shown the yellow twice, so he shouldn’t cost Millwall the game or put his side at jeopardy with any rash plays, on or off the ball.

Lee Gregory vs Bradford City.
This does not make good reading, here are the previous 3 matches Gregory has played against Bradford.
City vs Millwall – Jan 2017, Lee Gregory goals – 1
Millwall vs City – May 2016 – Lee Gregory goals – 1
City vs Millwall – May 2016 – Lee Gregory goals – 1

Is it all negative?
No, far from it, although Lee Gregory has an excellent history against City especially under Neil Harris and this article is a focus on Lee Gregory not Bradford City, he did fail to score in his previous couple of games against us and he was in the Championship side that we beat 4-0 in the FA Cup, I will also point out Millwall have only won once in the last 9 fixtures between the 2 clubs, the 1-3 drubbing at Valley Parade last season in the play offs first leg. City has claimed 2 wins in that time the rest draws. It will be a tight affair, but Lee Gregory is a highly proven scorer and must prove good odds to be a scorer at Wembley. Lee Gregory is as much a pain in the posterior to the City goal as Billy Sharp, but as both Billy Sharp and Lee Gregory are fully aware, we can cause a massive upset and win the big games. After listening to some of the mind games of who is favourite and who has most pressure on, I really do put this fixture at evens and if I put money on, I would have to go for Bradford City AET. I would be surprised if this final is decided in the 90 minutes. I can easily see us with the lions share pardon the pun of possession, but we have an inability to get a couple on the board and a lesser ability to kill off games, but we do have a knack of coming from a goal behind too.

A look at our Wembley opponents Part 1 – Neil Harris.