Millwall boss left to rue lapses of concentration in 2-0 defeat to Bristol City

Alex Neil admitted that his Millwall side were toothless as they fell to just their second defeat in nine Championship matches after Bristol City ran out 2-0 winners at The Den on Tuesday night.

Second-half goals from Zak Vyner and Harry Cornick secured a first win away from home for City since November 9, when they won 2-0 at Norwich City.

The Lions, knocked out of the FA Cup on Saturday by Crystal Palace, managed just one shot on target and that came from substitute Josh Coburn in the 95th minute.

“We lacked cutting edge,” said Millwall head coach Neil. “If you look at both goals, one is a set-play and the other is from a goal-kick. It wasn’t as if they played through us or carved us open or anything like that – it was just basics.

“The corner comes in, we don’t deal with the second ball, they land it, square it and score the goal.

“The second goal is a goal-kick and two of our lads get under the ball. We don’t win it, their wide player runs off the back of ours – then we’ve got an opportunity to collect it, it spills and they score the goal.

“In my view that has got nothing to do with how we are set up. It’s basics. You’ve got a man to mark for a set-piece and then go and win a goal-kick header, it boiled down to that.

“The biggest frustration for me is that the basics cost us the game without Bristol City having to do too much.

“Bristol moved the ball well in the first half. They normally fall into a 4-4-2 in the press but they didn’t do that, they stuck to the five.

“We prepped a different way, our spare players were our full-backs rather than in the middle of the pitch and it took the players a bit of time to get used to.

“Also when we were trying to build the spaces were different. They stayed in a different position but, credit to the players for the first half, I didn’t think we were great but we got to half-time. I felt we fixed the elements we needed to fix and were better in the second-half and that’s the frustrating thing for me because when we were better they scored the goal.”

Lukas Jensen made two saves in a first half that produced very little from both teams. Millwall were wasteful in attacking positions that their visitors had left open for them, just not making the right decision at key times.

The deadlock was broken in the 53rd minute. Vyner converted Rob Dickie’s pullback after Millwall had failed to deal with the initial corner.

The Robins added a second to seal all three points seven minutes from time when Cornick was in the right place to convert after Jensen had kept out Sam Bell’s effort.

Neil is keen however for his side to move on from this disappointment.

“We will not dwell on it,” he said. “We didn’t do much wrong, we didn’t get played off the park, by any means.

“I felt the game was balanced. They got the better of the first half but we didn’t give them too much.

“Lukas had to get down to make a save to his right from a Twine shot. We got into some really good areas in the second half.

“Aidomo [Emakhu] was excellent when he came on, he got into some dangerous areas. I didn’t think there was huge amounts of clearcut chances for either team – the worst situation it should have been for us was a 0-0. Then you take a point and move on to the next one – but we didn’t defend two fundamental moments and it cost us the game.

“There will be nights were you don’t pass the ball as well as you can. There will be nights when you aren’t quite at your best and tonight was one of those nights.

“They are young, they are energetic and they make you close them down the whole way to win the ball back. If you don’t they will stay on it and look for angles and they can play some nice patterns.

“They are a good side. I know their away record has not been great.  I don’t think they created lots of chances against us either but a couple of lapses in concentration have cost us.”