Millwall boss Alex Neil on 2-2 draw with Cardiff City: The goals we conceded were criminal

Alex Neil has labelled the two goals that Millwall conceded in tonight’s 2-2 draw against Cardiff City as “criminal”.

The Lions had a dream start at The Den with Liverpool loanee Calum Scanlon netting after just two minutes and then Casper De Norre quickly making it 2-0 after fine work from youngster Ra’ees Bangura-Williams.

But Chris Willock cut the deficit before the interval.

Millwall’s panicky defending and sloppy inability to retain the ball in the dying seconds proved super costly as Yousef Salech forced the ball past Millwall keeper Lukas Jensen in the last of seven second-half stoppage minutes.

Asked by Sky Sports where his main frustrations lay, Neil said: “The fact we concede a goal one minute before half-time and we concede a goal in the last minute of the game. From our perspective that is just criminal.

“If you look at both goals we literally don’t clear our lines properly – we miskick it straight to them and within one or two touches the ball ends up in the back of our net. We’ve only got ourselves to blame, in that respect.

“You are into the seventh minute of stoppage time and the lads are tired, they have given everything – mentally they are tired. But that is when you have to dig in and do the basics well, make sure you see the game out and be professional.

“We have two chances to clear the ball in a phase of play. We clear both of them straight to them. I think there is a ricochet which lands for them and the lad plays it…we need to win a header and then get down the line on the second ball – we don’t do either well enough and the ball ends up in the back of the net.

“It is a sickening one for us because when we score two goals and are two-nil up we expect to win the game from that point.

“For us to score two goals at the moment is no mean feat. It’s been difficult for us to score goals. And the two goals were brilliant, great bits of play. What you could see after that was obviously that we’ve been on a difficult run of late, wins have been hard to come by and you could see a little bit of nervousness in the players – they really wanted to get across the line and get the points in the bag.

“But by having that little bit of nervousness it sort of worked against us. We didn’t clear two really simple passes and to concede the goals when we did are so hard to accept.

“What you have got to do is take your medicine when you make clear mistakes, which we have. But equally we have got to stick together. We put ourselves in the position where we were 2-0 up, so we have shown we are capable. We’re really frustrated and disappointed – we need to take that frustration and disappointment into the next game and make sure it is a positive one.”