Millwall 1-2 Blackburn
Small pockets of the Millwall crowd were calling for Kenny Jackett to be sacked last night but club captain Danny Shittu has backed his manager and blamed this defeat on a controversial penalty with the score at 1-1.
A win would have secured Millwall’s Championship status but the game turned when Shittu was judged by referee Gavin Ward to have brought down Grant Hanley in the box.
Shittu accused the Blackburn centre-back of diving and his continued protests after the final whistle led to him being sent off. The penalty decision also angered the home fans. Ward was seen handing an object thrown from the crowd to the fourth official, while the referee later requested a police escort out of the ground.
Jordan Rhodes scored the spot-kick to leave Millwall needing a win from one of their remaining three games, against Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace and Derby to be safe.
Shittu said the squad still had faith in Jackett to get the FA Cup semi-finalists out of trouble. “Of course [we’re behind Jackett]. He’s our manager and he’s got a job to do this season,” added Shittu, who will be banned for Saturday’s game at home to Forest after being shown a second yellow card for remonstrating with officials. “We should have won that game, everyone knows we should have won. We lost it due to the decisions and we’ve just got to get on with things now.”
Shittu then turned his anger on Hanley as he said: “We got cheated. The guy knew what he was doing and we were disappointed to lose like that because it’s a game we shouldn’t have lost.”
Jackett, the Championship’s longest-serving manager, said: “I don’t think my players lack commitment or effort.On Saturday we’ll come out with freshness and enthusiasm and if we start like we did tonight, then there’s hope that we can add to our points total.
“A point or two might do it. We have three games left and we have to look at that positively.”
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