The Lions’ boss was booked after his side were reduced to 10 men
Millwall manager Alex Neil was left unhappy with the performance of referee Gavin Ward in Saturday’s 3-1 home defeat to Hull City.
City led 2-0 at The Den courtesy of a quick-fire brace from Kyle Joseph inside the opening 13 minutes.
The Lions saw Femi Azeez sent off in the closing stages for a kick out at Joseph, before Aidomo Emakhu’s fine finish gave them hope with 10 minutes to go. But Oli McBurnie’s deft header two minutes from time sealed a second successive away victory for City.
Neil, though, felt Ward should have dismissed Liam Millar in the second half after the Canadian winger kicked the ball away after being flagged offside. Having already been booked, he would have been given his marching orders.
Despite his side being 2-0 down and carrying very little threat, Neil felt a sending off on the hour would have turned the game in their favour.
“I thought we started the game brilliantly. The eight to ten minutes in my head, we were really good. We pinned them in, we were peppering the goal,” the Scotsman told News at Den.
“That led us to think that we could just basically fling men forward left, right, and centre. It doesn’t help that we’ve got no real defensive mindset in the middle of the pitch, in terms of we’re a very attacking team today, because that’s what we had. I thought we were naive, and that was a real frustration of mine. We spoke prior to the game about them being a really good transitional team, us being a really good transitional team, and who transitions better is going to win the game.
“The first goal came from us giving the ball away. We then don’t deal with the second phase, and we don’t defend the box well, which is highly unlike us. Then the second goal was the exact same. We play the ball, Femi [Azeez] tries to go inside the pitch, loses it, they transition down the side, cut back, don’t defend the box well, and we find ourselves 2-0 down without Hull having to have really done much, if I’m being brutally honest, which is the most frustrating bit. We then lose Zak Surge at halftime through dizziness, and he can’t continue.
“Then there’s a turning point in the game as well. We’re certainly culpable for the first half in terms of a couple of bits of looseness and committing too many players beyond the ball and getting transitioned on.
“But then, the [not] sending off of Liam Millar is a key component in the game because it happens before I make my changes, which is 58, 59 minutes, so there’s over 30 minutes to go. We then get seven minutes at the end of the game, so it was nearly 40 minutes for us to try and find two goals.
“We find a goal when we’re at 10 men, when it’s 2-0. So I’m pretty confident that we would have had more opportunities, more chances, and potentially got something from the game.
“Under any circumstance, in any game, any rule book you want to look at, that is a sending off. I’ve seen the referee, and I’ve told him my thoughts and my opinions on it. That won’t change. I’ve seen it back. It’s the most blatant sending off you’ll ever see. I’m not really one who runs about saying ‘We want bookings,’ but it’s a sending off, whatever way you want to cut it.
“Then Femi gets sent off, which I need to watch back. I haven’t seen that back. If he deserved to be sent off, then I’ve got no issues with it. If he doesn’t, then naturally, we will look into the appeal process in that sense. But it makes the game really difficult for us.
“I thought the lads who came on the pitch did really well. We get back into it at 2-1, then I think there’s a free-kick on Aidomo [Emakhu] in the middle of the pitch before the third goal.
“You could certainly say that I feel a bit aggrieved today in terms of key decisions in the game that didn’t go in our favour.
“I’m not going to talk about the referee or any individual person, whether it’s the fourth official, linesman, or whatever.
“All I think is there were two key moments in the game for me that went against us, which contributed to us losing the game. I don’t mean the red card. I mean the red card for Millar, and I mean the free-kick in the middle of the pitch.”
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