‘Painful’ watch for Baggies boss Ismael as Millwall end wait for a win

Valerian Ismael was left frustrated after West Brom’s “painful” 2-0 defeat against Millwall at The Den on Saturday.

Mason Bennett opened the scoring form close range following a Scott Malone free-kick. The Lions doubled their lead when Benik Afobe calmly slotted home with 12 minutes remaining.

It was Millwall’s first win in four league games.

Ismael said: “The mentality at the beginning of the game was much, much better. We started the game strong, we created chances.

“We tried to get the pressure high [up the pitch]. We tried to score early, that was our purpose, to get that confidence back early with a goal.

“The second half, we saw the difficulty from Wednesday’sgame. Fatigue was in our legs, we didn’t push the line high. But at the end, we made a mistake to concede a goal, then it will be difficult to come back.

“Especially when they scored the second goal, it’s a big frustration this week. It’s been a bad week for us with the result and performance on Wednesday.

“This is what we miss in the second half, to get the pressure into the last third. As I say, you have the chance in the first half to score an early goal, to give some confidence.

“We are not strong enough to keep clean sheets. It’s another two goals today, which is very, very painful.”