Alex Neil watched on as his Millwall team lost to Newcastle United.
The former Sunderland manager seeing Joe Willock score the goal that late on took United into the next round.
Matthias Jaissle making it now five games unbeaten and Newcastle United through to the last 16 of the Carabao Cup.
Alex Neil declaring in the aftermath of the defeat: “My overriding emotion once the game is finished is I’m disappointed to lose it because I didn’t think we deserved to lose.”
The Millwall manager adding: “I think Newcastle had a couple of little bits on the edge of our box but it wasn’t anything where I thought they should have scored. And then obviously we conceded the goal late on, which was disappointing considering I thought it probably came right off the back of our best moments and best momentum in the game.”
I thought Millwall played pretty well up to a point and battled, but only a combination of luck, resolute defending, really poor refereeing decisions (more on that in a bit) and a lack of clinical finishing and decision making had prevented Newcastle comfortably winning this away game before the eventual winning goal.
Millwall carried very little threat and playing at home they only managed two efforts on target which were the equivalent of backpasses, a couple of scrambles in the penalty area and then one big real chance when a just back from long-term injury Tino Livramento failed to deal with a long hopeful ball and the Millwall player hit the post.
As the away side, Newcastle United had 25 shots and 15 corners (compared to one corner all game for Millwall).
Yet again Newcastle United found themselves with a rubbish referee, not quite at the levels of the clown on Saturday against Bournemouth, but Craig Pawson on a mission not to book any Millwall players as they made a series of fouls to prevent Newcastle breaking at pace, taking until the 67th minute to book one of the home players for such an offence but then desperate to even that out when yellow carding Ramsey two minutes later.
Alex Neil claiming: “There was also an incident where it looked like a handball to me where the lad sort of looks like he leads with his arm. It will be interesting to see that back, I’m not quite sure what it looked like.”
The incident the Millwall boss refers to was a ball from the right that Nico Gonzalez (I think it was) clearly chested down in the penalty area and he had his arm in front of his chest anyway, as the replays clearly showed.
Alex Neil grasping at very thin straws when you consider what Millwall got away with when defending the 15 United corners and other set-pieces. Two stonewall penalty offences on Fabian Schar somehow missed by the hopeless Craig Pawson and the other match officials, if VAR had been in operation they would have been given no question.
Millwall rode their luck and gave a decent battling performance but for Alex Neil to claim they didn’t deserve to lose is straining credibility.
The Lions’ boss can be happy with how his players did but that doesn’t equate to deserving something out of the match.
Alex Neil adding: “I thought it was a really good performance from us. You look at the two teams, I think they’ve made three changes and we made more. Everybody who is connected with Millwall knows we are going through a bit of an injury scenario where we’ve got a lot of players missing. To more than hold our own in the game against a Premier League team who have been very good this season, I think they’ve scored two or more in every game they’ve played, I thought we limited them to very, very little in the game in general.”
I think it was more a case of Newcastle United limiting themselves. Failing to turn their clear superiority into goals, especially in the first half when they totally dominated and it felt like once/if they scored, then they’d win by a few.
Sometimes you have to do it the hard way though and Matthias Jaissle’s team eventually got the goal and win they deserved.
Millwall 0 Newcastle 1 – Tuesday 8 September 2026 8pm
Match Stats
Goals:
Willock 81
Millwall:
Possession was Newcastle 63% Millwall 37%
Total shots were Newcastle 25 Millwall 9
Shots on target were Newcastle 6 Millwall 2
Corners were Newcastle 15 Millwall 1
Touches in the opposition box Newcastle 30 Millwall 21
Newcastle team v Millwall:
Hornicek, Dedic (Livarmento 46), Schar, Botman, Hall, Ramsey (Lewis Miley 83), Gonzalez, Willock (Steur 91), Barnes, Murphy (Elanga 66), Wissa (Fernandez-Pardo 66)
Unused subs:
Pope, Bamba, Thiaw, Toure