Neil Harris had to settle for a point on his return the Den as Kieffer Moore prevented Millwall from winning their first game in November.

An end to end final 10 minutes lit up an otherwise rudimentary game of football. Both sides missing big chances to take the three points.

Injuries had started to become an issue for Gary Rowett, having lost Billy Mitchell, Conor Mahoney, Mahlon Romeo and Shane Ferguson to injury since the Lions last game.

Ben Thompson was handed only his third start of the season, hoping to take his chance and cement a place in a Millwall side that have been lacking ideas going forward.

And free flowing, attacking football was never likely to be on the cards. In his first visit to the Den as opposition manager, Neil Harris lined up with two 6 feet 4 inch strikers in Kieffer Moore and Robert Glatzel – a barrage of long balls was on the cards for this one.

The first half lived up to expectation on the most part. A physical, if uninspiring, battle between two sides who had drawn their last five league games.

There was little attacking threat from either side but Millwall took the lead thanks to an error from Alex Smithies.

The Cardiff keeper was off his time to claim Shaun Williams chipped cross, but was beaten to it by Matt Smith, who cushioned his header to open the scoring on 35 minutes.

The second half continued where the first left off. Both sides huffing and puffing but struggling to create anything of note.

Thompson nearly marked his return to the side with a goal. He was free in the box as he met Jed Wallace’s cross, but couldn’t keep his flying header down.

The visitors struggled to muster many clear-cut chances of their own. Moore and Joe Bennett’s efforts were as close as they came, both firing wide of the target.

The game seemed to be winding down until the 79th minute, when substitute Josh Murphy split the Millwall defence to find Moore.

The Welsh international help off Jake Cooper and poked his finish past Bialkowski to level the scores.

For the remaining ten minutes, the game sparked into life with both sides going for the three points.

They would have had them if not for an exquisite close-range save from Bialkowski, who denied Liverpool loanee, Harry Wilson, from point blank range.

The Polish stopper was on hand again to push a strong header from Moore around the post for a corner.

From the resulting corner, Millwall broke. Ryan Woods found Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, who had time to pick his spot against Smithies but the Icelandic striker couldn’t find the target.

Teams:

Millwall: Bialkowski; Leonard, Hutchinson, Cooper, M. Wallace; Williams, Woods; J. Wallace, Thompson (Bodvarsson 75), Bennett (Malone 57); Smith (Parrott 75).

Subs: Fielding, Bradshaw, Pearce Brown, Skalak, Muller.

Cardiff City: Smithies; Bacuna, Morrison, Nelson, Bennett; Wilson, Ralls, Pack, Hoilett (Ojo 60); Moore, Glatzel (Murphy 75).

Subs: Phillips, Vaulks, Benkovic, Whyte, Bamba, Harris, Bagan.