The talking points from Millwall’s 5-1 loss to Plymouth: Reality check for the Lions as play-off talks seems premature

Millwall fell to a disappointing 5-1 defeat at Plymouth Argyle on Wednesday night.

The Lions headed to Home Park off the back of four straight Championship wins but found themselves 4-0 down before Joe Bryan grabbed a late consolation. Argyle then grabbed a fifth to compound a rotten night for Alex Neil’s side.

Here are Daniel Marsh’s talking points from the match.

A REALITY CHECK

It’s been a positive few weeks for Millwall, but this one will sting.

As good as the Lions have been across the unbeaten run they had put together before travelling south, this was a low point in terms of performances this season. Nobody covered themselves in glory and things quickly unravelled.

Millwall could hardly have had a worse start with Joe Bryan putting through his own net. And then Casper De Norre gave away a penalty which was gleefully dispatched by Ryan Hardie, all after just 10 minutes.

That set the tone for the evening. Unfortunately, things only got worse. The only positive of the night is the fact Millwall have the chance to make amends quickly at home to West Brom tomorrow.

A CASE FOR THE DEFENCE

Millwall don’t score many, but they’ve got one of the meanest defences around.

In fact, only the Championship’s top three had a better defensive record than Millwall before the floodgates opened down in Devon.

All of the goals the Lions gave up were incredibly poor. Most were down to individual errors but that’s scant consolation for the 500 or so fans who travelled.

The season so far tells us that this was likely a one-off and the vast majority of the team have credit in the bank – especially Millwall’s defenders.

But this was a hard one to swallow after watching the defence and Liam Roberts keep Leeds at bay so well just days beforehand.

NEIL’S DILEMMA

Millwall’s influx of January arrivals, coupled with a strong showing from other individuals against Leeds at the weekend, made Wednesday night’s line-up particularly hard to predict.

Alex Neil took the blame for the result post-match, saying he got it wrong. Whether you agree with that or not – and it certainly felt as though he was being more than a bit generous to his players – the Scot now needs time to figure out his best team.

Neil has gone from having his hand tied in terms of options to having plenty of attacking players all vying for four spots. Who are best-suited to those spots? Who works together well? These questions won’t be answered overnight.

We’ve seen flashes of what this team could be capable of under Neil in recent weeks. And excitement was at an all-time high after a positive January window and a top win over Leeds in the FA Cup.

But this match was a timely, albeit brutal, reminder that patience will be needed as Neil now starts to suss out his best Millwall team.

PLAY IT OUT

Millwall have flirted with the play-offs in recent years, but talk of another top-six tilt feels a bit premature in the aftermath of Wednesday night’s mauling.

But maybe that’s not the end of the world. After all, it was only a few weeks ago us fans were nervously looking over our shoulders.

The winds of change have blown through Calmont Road in recent weeks and, as outlined above, it may be a while before we see the fruition of that.

Nobody is going to rule Millwall out of the play-off race outright (where’s the fun in that?) but if we’re being realistic, a season of consolidation and getting to grips with the workings of a new head coach ahead of the 2025-26 campaign seems more likely.

And after the stress of last year’s fight for survival – and that final day against Blackburn the year before – maybe that isn’t such a bad thing?

PICTURES: SEAN GOSLING