Millwall boss gives verdict as his side end wait for a Championship comeback win

Alex Neil was delighted with Millwall’s second-half response as they secured a first comeback win in the Championship since October 2022.

Goals from Casper De Norre and Josh Coburn cancelled out Mattie Pollock’s first-half opener as the Lions sealed a 2-1 win at Vicarage Road today.

Pollock had given the home side the lead in the first half. He broke free from Jake Cooper and had the simple task of heading past Lukas Jensen. The Hornets had chances to double their lead but failed to find that second goal before the break.

That came back to haunt them as Millwall staged an impressive fightback after their 2-0 defeat to Bristol City on Tuesday night.

De Norre equalised with a fine finish after being set up by Aidomo Emakhu’s cutback. That moment changed the game as the momentum swung to the Lions.

Coburn won it for the South Londoners in the 81st minute, with a fine looping header from Tristan Crama’s cross.

“Tuesday night was disappointing in the fact that I didn’t think we did a huge amount going forward, ” said Lions head coach Neil.

“We did not create enough for us, which is disappointing. The two goals we conceded were really poor, we handed Bristol the win rather than them having to work for it. Today at Watford we were excellent in the first half.

“They played really well and we struggled to get near them, they didn’t give us a chance to get at them. Tactically we did not plan for Louza to drop into the left-back slot. It’s the first time he’s done that this season and it caused us issues.

“I was trying to fix it in the first half but we couldn’t get information on. We looked leggy in the first half.”

Neil made some tactical changes at the break and they made a difference as the Lions were able to retain possession and get some more time on the ball.

“People seem to think I’m in there shouting at them, that isn’t the case at all,” said the Scot.

“It’s more down to being disappointed that we lost a goal to a set-play, that’s the first thing.

“The second thing is we needed to have a bit more of an impact in the game. Can we fix the press a bit better? We pressed through Luke Cundle, which made it a bit better for us. We were more aggressive. It made it a lot harder for Watford to move the ball and it allowed us to play on top of them which is what they did to us in the first half.

“I’ve played here as a player, shooting up or down that hill makes a difference, there is no doubt about it, when the momentum is with you it’s easier to get after teams and run up that hill from that perspective that helped.

“We scored two goals, we could have scored a third late on and we were the better team in the second half.”

Millwall’s record when going behind in the league has been poor. This victory was the first time Millwall have come from behind to win a league game since October 2022, a victory over West Brom at The Den.

Neil said: “It’s not something I think about, if I’m honest. I don’t really concern myself with that type of stuff. Obviously when you concede my main priority at half time was that I thought Watford were so much better than us in the first half. I needed to stop that, we needed to compete better, move the ball better and press better and be better in pretty much every element of the game but we did that.”