Millwall's Hidden Gem: Alex Mitchell's Flawless Form Wins Hearts at Lincoln City during Sensational Loan Stint

The 22-year-old is enjoying a strong run of form during his season-long loan switch to Sincil Bank

But in the end Lincoln held strong, gained a credible 0-0 against Paul Warne’s side to follow up on the draw at Wycombe Wanderers a week before, when midfielder Ethan Erhahon scored an equaliser in the eighth minute of stoppage time.

Seemingly central to the Imps’ side at the moment, even amid their difficult run of form, is one loanee from Millwall.

Millwall fans have been limited to only seeing Alex Mitchell in pre-season friendlies. Image: Millwall FC

“Alex Mitchell is the definition of never fall in love with a loan player,” wrote one Lincoln fan on X following the goalless draw against Derby. “Millwall you are in for an absolute star. We will miss him massively.”

Mitchell has appeared 24 times in all competitions so far this season for Lincoln, getting almost 2,000 minutes of football under his belt. The 22-year-old will be hoping that his strong form in League One might be enough to give him a genuine shot of making it at The Den next season.

But if it’s not, Gary Hutchinson of the Stacey West Podcast believes most Lincoln fans would be keen to keep him permanently, a sign of how much he has impressed since arriving at the club in August.

The Lincoln fan told NewsAtDen: “He’s been really good for us. It was a big challenge when he came in because we had a lot of good centre-backs at the club. We’ve got four or five centre-backs that would start for 90 per cent of League One clubs before we even bought Alex Mitchell in. At the time it was confusing. It was like ‘why are we bringing in another defender?’

“He’s been patient. If he’s had to drop out of the side for any reason, he takes it on the chin but when he’s in the side, he’s been winning the fans over.

“We play a back three and Alex tends to play on the right-side of the back three. He’s a tough, no-nonsense defender. I don’t think he’s made an error.”

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Along with his defensive game, Mitchell gained praise from Hutchinson for his personality and attitude.

He added: “He’s really calm at the back, he’s comfortable on the ball. He’s what I’d class as an old school centre-half in that he’s strong in the tackle, good in the air and he’s got a nice bit of pace as he showed against Derby last Saturday when he got back with a good sliding tackle when they got in behind.

“And his attitude is phenomenal. So three minutes into injury time against Derby, still 0-0, he makes a tackle, it goes off the Derby player and out for a throw-in, and he celebrated it like it was a goal. So I just get this impression of a genuine, down-to-Earth lad.

“On our website, our readers give the players a rating after every game and we name a player of the month [from those ratings]. And he’s the first player since I started doing these ratings over three years to win player of the month three months on the bounce.”

Mitchell has previously been on loan at Leyton Orient, St Johnstone and Bromley and has had bad luck in terms of managerial change, which have now occurred during his last three stints away from The Den.

On the same day Gary Rowett left Millwall, Mark Kennedy was sacked by Lincoln and eventually replaced by former Leeds United interim boss Michael Skubala.

Similar to Millwall, the managerial switch has brought a style change.

Hutchinson said: “[Mitchell] came in under Mark Kennedy and Kennedy wanted to play out from the back but didn’t and we were quite direct and it wasn’t particularly pretty to watch. Alex only really settled after Mark Kennedy left. Michael Skubala wants to play out from the back.

“There’s a train of thought that Alex is an awful lot like two of our other defenders, Paudie O’Connor and Adam Jackson, in that they’re old school warriors and they’re not so clever with their passing. I think over the last couple of games Alex is beginning to move away from that [reputation] a little bit. But it’s an evolving style. It was long ball and quite direct – not quite Wimbledon-style long ball – but right now we are trying really hard to play out from the back, play through the thirds and getting behind a team like Derby who play a high line. And then we play against the likes of Fleetwood or Cambridge, they’re going to sit deep and the defenders will be encouraged to carry the ball forward a bit more.”

Millwall fans have not seen much of Mitchell in a Lions shirt with his only competitive appearance coming against Cambridge United in the Carabao Cup in 2021. The defender has been at the club since he was 15.

And Hutchinson, who started the Stacey West website in 2016 and fan podcast in 2018, believes Mitchell’s weaknesses as a player are not “obvious.”

He added: “That’s not to say he’s the perfect player but he hasn’t really put a foot wrong. He wasn’t particularly impressive a couple of weeks ago when we lost to Blackpool but then nobody was. You could say he’s not the quickest but that’s not to say he’s particularly slow.

“I think he’s had a purple patch with us. He’s come in at a time where we’ve wanted leaders and wanted to see a bit of passion because under Mark Kennedy we didn’t have that so it’s hard to look at him and go ‘he’s not particularly good at this or that’. Whereas the other loanee we have, Jack Burroughs [from Coventry City], you can go ‘he’s a little bit inconsistent’ or ‘he doesn’t get forward enough’.

“But for a centre half, your weaknesses are not quite as evident, I don’t think. When I look at the stats, he probably doesn’t engage in as many aerial duels as other centre halfs but that’s because our other centre halfs are probably three or four inches taller and tasked with marking the bigger players.

“There isn’t anything that sticks out and, what I would say is, you’d be hard pushed to find a Lincoln City fan that wouldn’t want to keep him here beyond his loan spell and I think that’s a testament to how well he’s doing.”

Lincoln currently sit 12th in League One, 15 points off a play-off position and eight points off a relegation place.

They will be looking to end their winless run of eight games against Peterborough United tomorrow.