Portsmouth’s costly defensive naivety slammed for putting them back in Championship relegation danger
Jordan Williams ripped into Pompey for handing Millwall the chances to send his side spiralling to defeat.
The Blues once again come unstuck on the road, as they fell to a late 2-1 defeat in the capital - a result which cuts their gap to the Championship bottom three to four points.
Two second-half headers from Serb attacker Mihailo Ivanovic did the damage, on a frustrating afternoon in the capital for John Mousinho’s men.
Ivanovic rose home unchallenged in the 57th minute before doing likewise three minutes from time, after Casper De Norre won the ball from Harvey Blair and delivered the supply.
Williams fumed at the amount of chances Pompey provided the home side to use their physical and aerial threat, as they won 11 corners and attacking free-kicks in dangerous areas.
The right-back saw that as naivety from Mousinho’s side, which is a concern as they make those mistakes so late in the season.
Williams said: ‘We knew what the game was going to be. It was going to be a battle, long balls and second balls to defend with a lot of balls into the box.
‘Then we’ve come unstuck from the two things we’ve worked on all week, so that’s disappointing.
‘The more chances we give them (to put the ball into the box) the more chances they are going to get.
‘Then we’ve conceded from those at the end, so we had to limit those opportunities - but we didn’t.
‘It’s something we should learn from, but we’re 40 games into the season now - we should know what to do.
‘It’s frustrating but we were under pressure a lot and defended a lot of crosses and set-pieces. We did well but came unstuck, so you have to limit those chances because that’s what they thrive off. It’s disappointing.
‘We did well for so much of the game, but they got their chances and took them.
‘They are going to thrive off chances to put the ball into the box, so if you limit the opportunities to do that you limit their chances.
‘We gave away a lot of fouls, though I did think the ref was a bit soft both ways. Everything was a foul in the end, but you have to defend those scenarios better and try to see out the game.’