Millwall boss Alex Neil defends keeper Liam Roberts and ‘completely disagrees’ with Palace chairman Parish’s comments

Millwall head coach Alex Neil has defended Liam Roberts for his red card in today’s 3-1 FA Cup loss to Crystal Palace and also disagreed with the comments of Eagles chairman Steve Parish.

The Lions had the worst start possible with Roberts dismissed in the eighth minute.

The summer signing, who has started in the cup competitions instead of first choice Lukas Jensen, was sent off for a high challenge on Jean-Philippe Mateta, as he tried to clear the danger outside of his box.

Initially referee Michael Oliver let play continue but VAR was brought into play. The official went over to review the incident and showed Roberts a straight red card.

Parish could be seen imitating the Roberts’ challenge in the stands while Mateta had lengthy treatment on the pitch before being stretchered off.

He then did a half-time interview with BBC, televising the tie, saying it was the most reckless challenge he had ever seen.

Neil, asked about those comments, said: “Liam has come out and tried to get the ball, mistimed it and caught the lad. It is no more than that, in my perspective.

“There was no motive. I completely disagree with that (Parish’s comment). He certainly has not intended to hurt the player or anything like that.

“We wish Mateta the best and hope he gets back on the pitch. I don’t know how bad it is or isn’t. I’ll be honest, at the time I thought he might actually make contact with the ball but I haven’t seen it back.

“The fact is if he has caught him then he deserves it to be a sending off. But it certainly no more than that. I don’t agree he has gone out intending to hurt the player – it is five minutes into the game.”

Neil took off Luke Cundle with Lukas Jensen coming on to replace Roberts, who had kept three clean sheets in his most recent appearances for the South Londoners.

Palace went ahead on 33 minutes when Japhet Tanganga headed Will Hughes’ cross into his own net. And Daniel Munoz slammed in a second before the interval, the Colombian was in an offside position but the ball came to him off a Millwall player – Billy Mitchell’s attempted clearance rebounding off Tanganga.

The Lions cut the deficit with seconds left to play in the half. Femi Azeez did excellently to break into the left of the box and although Palace goalkeeper Matt Turner pushed out his low cross, Wes Harding’s follow-up clipped off Ben Chilwell on the way into the net.

Millwall had some deadball moments at the start of the second period but were unable to make them count before Eddie Nketiah killed off the contest. Eberechi Eze’s 81st-minute free-kick was nodded on by Chris Richards and Nketiah produced a looping header over Jensen.

Neil said: “You know coming here, from a Championship perspective and how good Crystal Palace have been, that with 11 men it was going to be difficult. Certainly when you go down to 10 men after five minutes then the task becomes extremely hard at that point.

“Crystal Palace are a good side. It is difficult to break them down or get any foothold in the game, particularly when they have got spare players on the pitch.

“They were really aggressive and had a goal disallowed early doors. It looked quite worrying after 15-20 minutes for us. The nature of the goals is probably the biggest frustration for us. One is an OG, where we head it into our own net. The second we don’t get a clearance right, it lands for their player and he taps it in.

“The third one we lose two headers in our box from a set-play. That is probably my biggest frustration that if there was a moment of quality or something special from a Crystal Palace player then they earn the right to get that goal. The goals were a little bit cheap from our perspective.

“We gave ourselves a little bit of a lifeline before half-time. Naturally we didn’t have much of the game. We put the ball forward and worked around it. I was hoping you’d see us play a bit more football than we could, because of how the game panned out.

“The lads never gave up. They keep going, grinding and making it difficult. Half-time helped us. We changed our shape and went back to a five which made it a little bit more difficult for Palace. The problem I had in the first half was trying to get that information on with how loud it was and that we’d prepped a four all week. The last thing I wanted to do was change it that quickly.

“No complaints, Palace deserved to win that game.”