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 nine points clear of seventh-placed Southampton, who also have two games in hand.
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 today. ‘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 today.
“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 today. 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, today we didn’t.”
