Alex Neil discusses what went wrong in Millwall’s 3-1 loss to Portsmouth.

ALEX Neil claimed Millwall’s current lack of experience hampered his team during their 3-1 loss to Portsmouth.

The Lions were without numerous senior players at Fratton Park, including captain Jake Cooper, who was suspended after receiving his fifth yellow card of the season against Preston North End prior to the international break.

Millwall’s growing list of unavailable players took its toll, and Pompey deservedly took the lead in the 22nd minute when Zak Swanson sent a shot into the roof of the goal from outside the box.

Portsmouth extended their advantage immediately after the break when Adrian Segecic’s cross deflected off Tristan Crama and into the net.

The Lions’ prospects of getting back into the game were cut short when Joe Bryan was sent off in the 67th minute for a late challenge on Callum Lang, preventing Portsmouth from counterattack, but they scored five minutes later through Mihailo Ivanovic. Jordan Williams’ powerful strike in the 89th minute put the game away.

“We certainly lack experience as a group at the moment,” Neil informed me. “With people like Coops, [Ryan] Lenny, Billy [Mitchell], and all these boys missing, it’s naturally difficult for a lot of the other lads to come in and do it on a daily basis.

You can fit them in here and there and give them some game time, which is great. That is not the reason for the defeat.

“I believe as a group, we could have retained the ball better. We didn’t, and as a result, you’re always pressing. When you get the ball back, you’ll be fatigued. I don’t think we handled with the first balls up either.

There’s one at the end, and the lad punts it, resulting in a corner; we don’t deal with the first header.

They’re basically essentials for us, which we’re usually quite good at. Neil was also upset with his team’s defensive performance during Pompey’s goals.

I believe the nature of the goals we conceded, particularly the second and third, were really upsetting for me because I thought we could have done much better with both,” Neil remarked.

“I need to watch that [Crama’s own goal] back, but it appears to have gotten across, and all we need to do now is get anything on it. We miss it, and it lands in the back of the net.”

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