Millwall boss not writing off Championship play-off dream despite needing heavy win total in run-in

Alex Neil has refused to give up on Millwall reaching the Championship play-offs.

The Lions were beaten 2-0 by Bristol City on Tuesday night with goals from Zak Vyner and Harry Cornick handing Liam Manning’s side their first victory on the road since early November.

Defeat meant that the Lions missed the chance to close the gap on the top six which stands at seven points.

On average you need to get at least 73 points to secure a top six spot in the Championship – Millwall are on 45 points with 33 left to play for, meaning they would need to win nine of their final 11 games to even hit that total.

Despite this, the Lions head coach remains optimistic.

Neil, speaking on Tuesday evening, said: “I’m not going to lie, I am disappointed because we spoke about it before the game – tonight was a huge opportunity for us to get a few points on the board and get ourselves closer to that, keep fighting to try and get there.

“That is my biggest frustration for the lads because we want to try and keep pushing to see if we can get there and push on.”

Millwall head to Watford on Saturday with the Hornets four points better off than the South Londoners and aiming to close the gap to the top six.

The Lions head there having collected away wins against Leeds and Derby in recent weeks.

“Every game in the Championship is tough, every game is tough for different reasons,” he said.

“Watford is a tough place to go. They are a good side but we’ve been pretty consistent.

“We’ve done alright. We’ve had two losses in 10, we aren’t doing too badly.

‘What I will say is the biggest challenge for us – and it has been the biggest challenge since before I got here and still is – is whether we can break down teams, especially at home when the onus is on us to go and force the issue.

“What I do think is we have enough quality to do so. Tonight I thought we were a little bit sloppy with our passing, that can be better. Tonight was the first time that we haven’t scored in quite a few weeks.”