By Will Scott
ALEX Neil said “I’d have thought you were taking the piss” if told at the start of the season that Millwall would be as high as second with five games to go.
Millwall jumped into the automatic promotion places after beating top-two rivals Middlesbrough 2-1 on Good Friday, and despite losing 2-1 to Norwich City three days later, remained in second with Ipswich Town and Boro playing later that day.
Ipswich went on to beat Birmingham City, while Boro drew with Swansea City, meaning all three teams ended Easter Monday on 72 points, although Ipswich have two games in hand. Millwall are now below both on goal difference and eight points clear of seventh-placed Wrexham.
Neil was asked if he was happy with his team’s position with five games to go.
“Unbelievably happy,” Neil said. “If you said to me at the start of the season with five games remaining, we’d be second, honestly, I’d have thought you were taking the piss. I’m being serious. This team has done unbelievably well.
“I know people will be disappointed [after the Norwich defeat]. ‘Oh, we should have done this, and we should have done that.’ These lads give everything for the shirt every single game, and we came up a bit short.
“We didn’t play well enough. We know that. We could have done a bit better in certain elements of the game. Norwich were good. I think I’ve always been fair in my assessment of the game. Once we got our noses in front, I did think we would get something from the match because we’ve been brilliant at that. Unfortunately, we didn’t.”
Millwall have another quick turnaround ahead of facing West Bromwich Albion on Friday night, the first of three evening fixtures in their final five games, with the remaining two kicking off at 12:30pm.
Neil’s side also face back-to-back away trips to Stoke City and Leicester City within four days.
None of the Lions’ last eight games of the regular season will have been at 3pm on Saturday.
“That’s been a frustration of mine,” Neil said. “I’ve voiced my opinion on it. In the next four games, we play before the teams immediately next to us in the league, so they know what our result was, which I don’t think is helpful for anybody. Certainly not helpful for us.
“The fact that they’ve brought our other game forward onto the Friday means we get one less day’s rest. Again, we need to travel twice in one week, and we’re away twice. It’s certainly not been in our favour, let’s put it that way.”
