Joe Edwards’ reaction as Millwall suffer 3-1 defeat to Middlesbrough at The Den
Millwall head coach Joe Edwards lamented the “soft goals” that his team conceded as they lost 3-1 to Middlesbrough at The Den today.
Joe Bryan put the Lions ahead in the 10th minute although team-mate Kevin Nisbet may be trying to claim it off him after attempting to get his head on the left wing-back’s right-footed shot.
Boro levelled in the 38th minute as Sam Greenwood was twice afforded too much space, the second time in the penalty box, as he squared for Lukas Engel to convert from close range.
It was a mistake by Bryan which led to the Teessiders, who had beaten Chelsea 1-0 in the EFL Cup semi-final first leg, taking the lead. The former Fulham defender’s clearing header went horribly wrong and Isaiah Jones went through to confidently finish past Sarkic.
There was a similar clinical finish for Middlesbrough’s third as Morgan Rogers fed substitute Marcus Forss and the former AFC Wimbledon loanee emphatically found the bottom left corner of the net.
Edwards said: “It was a very similar story (to the FA Cup loss to Leicester) in how the game played out. Loads to be pleased with in terms of the quality of our performance and control – how clear an idea there is about our team and what we’re trying to be now.
“It’s probably a bit more frustrating because it is the second week running. I’ll always be one to try and find positives and keep following our process, which we will do on Monday without a big grey cloud hanging over it, we want to be a team that has a bit about us and doesn’t keep coming on, patting ourselves on the back for losing football matches.
“The goals against us are soft.
“The bottom line is that when you are playing against a team of that level, if you dominate as much as we did for the first half an hour – Coops hitting the bar – you’ve got to cash in, get that second goal and it could be a different day.
“Equally you can’t afford to make errors around your own goal because they will punish you. They took the game away from us by being clinical around our goal and we didn’t do that today.”
More to follow.