Southampton boss Russell Martin: Goals we conceded against Millwall were rubbish and cost us
Russell Martin was very frustrated with his Southampton side after they were beaten 2-1 by Millwall on Saturday afternoon.
Neil Harris secured victory in his first game of his second spell in charge of the Lions thanks to goals from Japhet Tanganga and a Zian Flemming penalty. The win was Millwall’s first in any competition since New Year’s Day.
However, it’s back-to-back defeats for Martin and Southampton, who lost ground in the automatic promotion race.
“We concede two crap goals,” said Martin.
“We have three massive chances, and we should score. There are few chances when you’re playing a team with such a low block and so many bodies behind the ball. We had to score, and we didn’t.
“We conceded two rubbish goals from set plays. The free-kick is the softest free-kick I’ve seen. Zian [Flemming] is a guy I like and looked at when I was at Swansea, but we couldn’t afford him. He fell over a lot today and got a lot of free-kicks. It allowed them to get the ball in the box. How we don’t deal with that, I do not know. It’s a floated cross, and it loops into our goal.”
The home side got back on level terms when Che Adams slipped in between Jake Cooper and Danny McNamara to finish past Matija Sarkic. Despite that, they failed to push home their possession into clear-cut chances.
Flemming restored Millwall’s lead from the penalty spot before half-time.
A frustrated Martin added: “We get back in the game, then give a foul away in the middle of the pitch, giving their goalkeeper a chance to send all their players into our box. We don’t clear it twice. We half-deal with it but, by that point, it ends up being crossed into our box, and we give away a penalty. That’s the story of the game.
“We had four or five big chances and dominated the game completely. Millwall had nothing really other than the set-pieces. Flemming had a shot in the second half. We’ve given them something to hold onto because we’ve conceded rubbish goals.
“Whatever shape or formation you play, you can’t give goals like that away. It’s pathetic.”
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