Alex Neill unhappy with red card as 10-man Millwall miss chance to move second

Millwall head coach Alex Neil disagreed with the sending-off for his side that changed the complexion of their match against Blackburn as they slipped to a 2-1 defeat.

Results earlier on Saturday meant the Lions had the chance to go into the second automatic promotion spot in the Championship and Luke Cundle’s superb opener looked to have put them on their way.

However, they lost left-back Zak Sturge to a red card just before the hour mark and then fell victim to a late comeback from Blackburn that saw substitute Mathias Jorgensen score twice in the last 10 minutes.

It was a big result for Rovers as it put them three points clear of the relegation zone while Millwall dropped to fourth, two points behind second-placed Middlesbrough.

Neil said: “I don’t think it’s a sending-off.

“We’ve got Jake [Cooper] covering. It was shoulder-to-shoulder with Jake initially, Zak then tries to get back round him and doesn’t try to foul him, he tries to sort of just jump over his leg and come back round because the lad cuts him off.

“Then we’ve got Camiel Neghli recovering but, more importantly, the lad’s touch takes him away from goal initially. We’ve got three covering defenders and the ball is about 25-30 yards out.

“If you’re going to take your next step into the box to potentially shoot unopposed, my understanding of the rules is that’s then a goalscoring opportunity.

“I don’t think he would have got that far to get there and get that opportunity to score, so in my opinion I didn’t think it was a sending-off.

“That then impacts the game but even then, I thought we did really well.”

Millwall were ahead in the 54th minute when Femi Azeez’s cross was met by a brilliant overhead kick by Cundle that found the bottom corner.

However, they were down to 10 men just five minutes later when Sturge was given a straight red card for pulling back Yuki Ohashi as he tried to run through on goal.

Blackburn were then level in the 80th minute when Ryan Alebiosu’s ball across the face of goal gave Jorgensen a tap-in, and the Danish forward completed the turnaround within five minutes when he swept Ryoya Morishita’s through ball into the bottom corner.

Blackburn boss Michael O’Neill said: “Alex has built a strong team here with a lot of physical presence that can really test you, and we had to match that in the early part of the game.

“I thought we did that and I thought we played some excellent football as well without maybe having the cutting edge. We probably could have been better in the final third.

“Then, when we went behind, obviously the reaction we got was superb and we scored two very good goals. We then saw the game out and it was a massive three points.”