The Will Scott column: Baffling red card thwarts Millwall’s chance to seize control of top-two race &#8211; but fate still in

THAT was one of the strangest red cards I have seen.

Not because it was a particularly unusual incident, but because it seemed to come out of nowhere.

Millwall were cruising at 1-0, and had just come close to doubling their lead when Balazs Toth pushed Camiel Neghli's shot past the post (was wrongly given as a goal kick, setting up the whole chain of events...).

Toth pumped it up, it went back and forth, then Ryoya Morishita flicked it on for Yuki Ohashi, who, in fairness, took a good first touch to burst past Zak Sturge.

Sturge then collided with him, bringing him down well outside the box. Fair enough, deserved a yellow card, clumsy, not a huge deal, let's just get on with defending the set-piece.

Instead, referee Andrew Kitchen initially did not give the foul, perhaps assuming Ohashi had initiated the contact, then (maybe on the advice of his assistant?) reversed his decision, then pulled out a red. What??

Ohashi was in a dangerous position, but his touch had taken him wide, and he was not in a clear goalscoring position.

Moreover, Jake Cooper was recovering, meaning Sturge was not the last defender.

The likely outcome if Sturge had not brought Ohashi down - he gets pushed out wide, perhaps creates a chance, perhaps comes to nothing. A good opportunity, not an obvious goal-scoring opportunity.

A yellow card was fair; a game-altering dismissal was certainly not.

Surrounding the referee and pleading ignorance has become far too common a sight in modern football, and usually it is near-cartoonish acting - of course, the players know their team-mate has put in an awful challenge, but might as well try to trick the ref.

The incredulous looks on Sturge's team-mates' faces conveyed just how strange the decision was. They were not prepared to defend him before the referee because they did not expect to have to.

The unjustness of the situation was rightfully recognised by most fans in The Den, who clapped Sturge off, and have leapt to his defence following the vile racist abuse directed at him in the aftermath (by two overseas accounts not appearing to be affiliated with either club).

Other than obviously taking a toll on Sturge, the red card turned what probably would have been a routine win into a backs-to-the-wall, anxiety-inducing final 30 minutes.

As mentioned, it had been mostly one-way traffic in the previous fifteen minutes. Alex Neil's half-time formation switch had worked wonders, shifting to a 3-5-2.

Femi Azeez and Camiel Neghli matched up well with their wing-backs, Luke Cundle added energy in midfield and the two strikers were able to put themselves about physically.

Between the restart and the sending off, the Lions created 1.15 xG (expected goals) to Rovers' 0.36, while winning 64.3 per cent of duels and 80 per cent of aerial duels.

"We started the second half great," Neil said in his post-match. "It allowed me to add a little bit of detail to how we played. Doing it mid-half's not great because Femi and Baz are standing over the far side when Femi should be up and splitting the opposite side. Once I fixed it at half-time, it became easier for them to understand."

Had that game state continued for the final half an hour, I would have been surprised with any result other than a Millwall win, as Neil said after the game, especially given Blackburn's poor goal-scoring record.

Instead, they were at an unexpected disadvantage.

In the immediate aftermath of the sending off, it was actually the Lions who looked more like scoring - Azeez and Coburn both had fantastic chances, while the latter should have won a penalty when Eiran Cashin bundled him over in the box, another poor decision that cost Millwall at a vital juncture.

Blackburn's additional man soon began to add up, and I thought the three attacking players they brought on all made a difference.

They were helped by some pretty poor defending for Rovers' goals as well. For the first, Neghli loses Ryan Alebiosu, then Crama gambles and gets it wrong, giving Mathias Jorgensen an easy tap-in.

Six minutes later, Cundle and Mihailo Ivanovic get in each other's way in transition, Blackburn turn it, Crama chooses to close down Morishita rather than track Jorgensen, who was never going to be caught by a backtracking Azeez, and the Japanese international played a clever ball through to Jorgensen who finishes well.

The three points evaporate within three minutes, and what a three points that would have been.

Middlesbrough had conceded a last-minute equaliser against Bristol City earlier that Saturday, three days after losing 1-0 to Charlton Athletic at home, while Ipswich had also dropped points against Stoke City in the midweek.

A win would have catapulted Millwall into second for the first time this season.

While the play-offs provide unmatched drama and entertainment, I would imagine the vast majority of Lions fans would rather go up automatically.

It was a fantastic chance to put themselves in the driving seat, especially with trips to Ipswich and Middlesbrough to come in back-to-back games.

Yet, they were denied by a baffling bit of refereeing, although Neil did point out his side could have taken it out of Kitchen's hands.

"There's fifty per cent where we should do better with our opportunities and defend better for the goals," Neil said. "And then there's other fifty per cent where there are two key moments in the game that don't go in our favour. Those elements are certainly frustrating, but there's nothing I can do about them."

Still, the top-two race was not decided on Saturday, as frustrating a result as it was.

There are two more crunch games to come, plus a run of fixtures against bottom-half sides, including teams who may have nothing to play for other than pride (Queens Park Rangers, Stoke City, Norwich City).

The Lions are still in prime position to qualify for the top six ( Opta has them at 98.46 per cent ), which is an extraordinary achievement given the club's history.