Millwall captain: Play like we did at QPR and West Brom could be five up at half time

BY RICHARD CAWLEY

Steve Morison has described Millwall as “rubbish” in Wednesday night’s derby defeat to QPR – and warned they are in for a serious drubbing at West Brom without major improvements.

The Lions are winless in five Championship matches and have lost their last three away fixtures.

Next up is a trip to The Hawthorns to face a Baggies side who are the top scorers in the division.

Morison faced the press after the 2-0 loss at Rangers in midweek. He said: “We were rubbish and they were good, it’s pretty simple.

“Our next game is most probably our toughest one so far. They have lots and lots of Premier League quality and got a hell of a result on Tuesday [beating Bristol City 4-2].

“Livers [David Livermore, assistant manager] has just said it is a good one coming up. If we perform like that we could be five down at half time.

“We’re not panicking. It’s a case of something needs to go pop in the dressing room and hit home. The realism we ain’t going to just turn up and win games.

“Teams are giving us a hell of a lot of respect – QPR changed their line-up to combat what they thought we would do and how we’re going to play.

“Everyone knows it wasn’t good enough and it is only us who are going to put it right and we need to do that very quickly because now we’re a point outside the bottom three and reality kicks in.

“I said in pre-season it was going to be a tougher season than last year. We are going to be in a relegation fight and getting to 50 points is our aim. Eight games in that is still our aim, we’re just making it tougher every week.

“We turned up with a game-plan but they executed their one a hell of a lot better than we did.

“In the second half we were better but it flatters you a little bit when you see how they played – they were just playing on the counter and it got very open and spread. They had the chances, we didn’t create them.”

The match was lit up by Eberechi Ebe. The 20-year-old, released by the Lions in 2016, got on the scoresheet.

Morison said: “I coached him when I was doing my B and A licence, so I saw him up close quite a bit.

“He is a good player but is he ever going to play for Millwall Football Club? That’s the question when they had a decision to make in the end.

“He has done great for them. He gets the licence to do what he does, but at our football club you don’t give people that licence. We all have to do our shift and do both sides of the game.

“He has found somewhere where he can express himself. When he plays like that, he is a great.

“It was the other side of the game you could see he needed to do. If he keeps improving on that then you never know how far he can go. If he becomes the full package it will be tough for QPR to keep hold of him.”

IMAGES BY BRIAN TONKS