Millwall head coach Joe Edwards has criticised the manner of his side’s 3-1 defeat away at high-flying Ipswich Town which has left the Lions closer to relegation than the playoff places.
At the referee’s whistle to signal the end of the first half, Millwall found themselves trailing 3-0 against the Championship’s top goalscorers, with a mountain to climb after the interval. Conor Chaplin, Massimo Luongo and Nathan Broadhead all found the net for the hosts.
Edwards made a change at half-time, replacing Aidomo Emakhu with George Honeyman and the substitution did work as the London outfit won the second half 1-0, but Kevin Nesbit’s strike 12 minutes from the end was nothing but a mere consolation for the visitors.
The defeat was Millwall’s second in three games under Edwards and has left the side 19th in the table, seven points off Queens Park Rangers, who picked up their first victory under new head coach Marti Cifuentes on Tuesday night against Stoke City.
Furthermore, the Lions are now ten points adrift of sixth-place Hull City, with games against Sunderland, Cardiff City and Leicester City on the near horizon looking like a daunting task.
Speaking in his post-match interview, Edwards slammed his players for their performance at Portman Road [quotes via South London Press]:
“The whole performance was poor – but in particular the first half. We needed no warning of what they are capable of.
“But we started the game and we are a yard or two off in every moment, the basics were wrong.
The goals were avoidable…it felt like in every position on the pitch, in the first half, like a case that man for man their players did the basics but also showed the moments of quality – because we were sloppy on the ball as well.
The manager continued on, admitting that he “can’t accept” the manner in which his team lost on the night:
“This isn’t going to be easy and I can accept losing football matches – that’s the way the game goes. I can accept coming to a team away from home that are on fire, and conceding great goals and losing football matches. I can’t accept the manner of that first half, in particular.
“We will have ups and downs in this month because it is a busy one but it can’t look like that again.”
Writer’s View
Millwall have won just five league games all season and now have picked up merely one victory in their last eight matches which is an even worse record than Huddersfield Town who are a place below them in the Championship.
Nevertheless, while the Lions are struggling, Edwards will need a bit of time to turn things around and change the style of play. They are not at an immediate risk of going down, although perhaps the table will tell a different story by Christmas.
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