KENNY Jackett was disappointed to see Millwall’s Carling Cup run come to an end with a home defeat to Ipswich Town in the third round last night.

After a bright start from the Lions, Tamas Priskin scored against the run of play with a looping header before Gareth McAuley put the Tractor Boys two clear on the stroke of half-time.

Millwall, who had been very poor after Priskin’s strike, halved the deficit when Steve Morison produced a sublime piece of skill to control Tony Craig’s cross before firing over Ipswich keeper Brian Murphy.

However, despite a determined second half effort, the Lions failed to find the equaliser and crashed out of the competition.

Millwall had suffered a heavy 6-1 league defeat to Watford at The Den just three days earlier but Jackett had no complaints about the desire shown by his players against Ipswich.

He said: “We showed some spirit and on the overall balance of the game we were unlucky to lose.

“We started the game very well and created several chances early on.

“But Ipswich then scored against the run of play and we lost our way.

“After that goal we were very poor and a sloppy second goal doubled our task.

“We really needed to get in to the break just one down but when it went 1-0 we played as though it was the last five minutes of the match and forgot to defend.

“In the second half we put some pressure on Ipswich and if you’re going to lose that is the way to go down – playing with some spirit and competing.

“However, we have to eradicate some of the soft goals that we’re giving away because it is giving us a mountain to climb. If we do that then we'll always be in with a chance.”

After a superb start to the season, the heavy defeat to Watford and cup exit to Ipswich have given Millwall a taste of how tough Championship sides can be.

And with promotion hopefuls Cardiff and table-topping QPR next on the fixture list, Jackett knows his side must get back to their best.

“It's a tough little period and a tester for us,” he conceded.

“But this is a high level.

“You just have to look at the quality in Ipswich's squad to realise that.

“But we wanted to come up to this level and now we are here we have to work hard to compete and master it.

“When I look back at the DVD I’m sure I will see that tonight we have had more shots, more chances, more possession and more territory but we have to capitalise on these things.

“We also needed a break or decision to go our way – we haven’t had many of those recently.

“Now we have two big games coming up in the league, but sometimes that is the best thing. It is a good opportunity.

“We've got through a couple of rounds in this competition and although it would have been lovely to have gone further, we need to get a foothold in our division.”

One way of doing that may be with a 4-5-1 or 4-3-3 formation which the Lions used against Ipswich.

The Lions’ 4-4-2 was exposed by Watford at the weekend and Jackett is fully aware how the best sides in the division could potentially break down his team, as the Hornets did on Saturday.

However, it was not until the Lions reverted to their more familiar 4-4-2 shape in the second half that they got their goal.

“I was very happy with the 4-3-3 for the first 20 minutes,” Jackett said.

“We created some good chances and had a lot of the play.

“It is going to be hard for us to play a straight 4-4-2 against some of the bigger sides – they will get in between our lines and outnumber us in midfield.

“It would be naive to think we can play 4-4-2 all season and not get exposed.”