'A game of two halves' was the essence of Richard Shaw's assessment of his team's performance at Aldershot in the opening Pontins' Holidays Combination fixture of the season where goals from Gary Alexander (2), Ashley Grimes and Gary Bowes ultimately saw Millwall through to a 4-2 victory. .
"We were diabolical in the first half," stated Shawsy. "I was very disappointed with every aspect of our play both with and without the ball. There was a real lack of passion and desire from us with the possible exception of Gary Alexander and Ashley Grimes who did well thoughout the game. It doesn't matter whether you're a senior pro' out of the first team picture at present, a young kid coming through to this level, or finding your way back to match fitness after injury, you have to show attitude and desire, and those qualities were largely missing during the first 45 minutes.
A few things were said at half-time, and the second half was a different story altogether. We showed a real will to win after the break and created a number of very good chances. I have to give credit to the players for the way they responded, but the lesson is that if we start games at any level in the way we did this one, we'll have lost most of them by half time."