‘Didn’t deserve anything’: Millwall boss’ honest view as he hands Portsmouth plaudits
The Millwall boss gives his assessment of how Pompey came away with the spoils from the Championship clash at The Den.
Alex Neil acknowledged his team deserved nothing from the game as his high-fliers were battered into submission by Pompey.
But the Millwall boss insisted there was no surprises over the manner in which John Mousinho’s side rolled the Lions over with their intensity, in their huge 3-1 success at The Den.
Millwall boss: Nothing Pompey did was a ‘surprise’
Neil gave an honest assessment of what unfolded in south London, with his side on a run of one home loss in 12 and a single league defeat in 10 going into the game.
He told BBC Sounds: ‘I didn’t think we deserved anything from the game. They did the basics better than we did.
‘I’m not here to scrutinise them. It’s the same side I saw play at Charlton and I don’t think anything they did was a surprise.
‘I spoke at length before the game over the midfield battle being vitally important.
‘The keeper kicks the ball a mile, we need to win first duels and second balls.
‘If we don’t send enough men through they will play out from the back, so we need to get after the ball.
‘Every single element of that happened, we just didn’t play as well as we usually do.’
Neil: Midfield battle was key against Pompey
Pompey started the second half at a ferocious pace, with Gustavo Caballero opening the scoring seconds after the restart before John Swift doubled the advantage 10 minutes later.
Casper De Norre reduced the arrears, but Marlon Pack put the 3,000-plus travelling fans in dreamland in the 67th minute.
Neil saw poor defending from his team and Millwall losing a midfield battle key to the game’s outcome.
He told Southwark News: ‘When I say how we defended, I’m not just talking about the back four,.
‘I’m talking about the whole team. I want to make that clear. It’s not just defending as in him or him or him. This is a collective thing.
‘The first goal from our point of view is really, really disappointing. The second goal is equally as disappointing because we’re actually intact. The first ball comes up. They nod it down. They win the second ball, turn it around the corner, and we try to nick it on the wrong side and let them roll away from us.
‘I said this to the lads after the game, as a team we’re built on doing the basics really well, and I didn’t think we did the basics well enough today. When the ball did go forward, it didn’t stick enough for us when we got it there. I didn’t think we won enough first duels. We didn’t land on enough.
‘To be honest, everything I said to you the other day, that was going to have to happen: winning the midfield battle, making sure the ball stuck at the top end, making sure there’s enough pressure, making sure you’re winning the first duel, second balls. We didn’t do enough. That’s what’s cost us the game.’