Millwall boss Ian Holloway admits his side need to quickly cut out the sloppy defensive errors which once again undid them in tonight’s 3-1 home defeat to Birmingham.

The home fans booed their side off at the break after goals from Clayton Donaldson and David Cotterill put the Blues is command.

Holloway’s double half-time change saw Richard Chaplow and Aiden O’Brien enter the fray and their introduction livened up the hosts with Lee Gregory reducing the arrears nine minutes after the restart.

But as Millwall pushed bodies forward in search of an equaliser, they were dealt a sucker punch when substitute Wes Thomas added a late third to ensure the Lions were still searching for their first win over Birmingham since 1996.

Holloway said: “We’ve got to stop defending like that, we’ve got to stop one long ball getting hit over our head and them scoring.

“They’ve had four shots and scored three.

“It is very déjà-vu, so we’ve just got a lot of work to do. It is no coincidence we’ve lost Nicky Bailey, Carlos Edwards and Lee Martin.

“Where would we be without them in that run last year?

“I’ve just reminded them downstairs if we’d have had some of these results in that last eight games we wouldn’t be in this division.

“There’s a lot of games left for us to keep fighting and show we can compete at this level.”

The Lions are now without a win in five games after an impressive start to the season, form which has seen them tumble alarmingly down the Championship table from the play-off places.

Holloway said: “It is a good job we had that good start because it would be a lot worse now if we hadn’t of won those first two games, wouldn’t it?

“The positives for me were that no-one folded. We had a terrible spell where we go in at half-time 2-0 down and we managed to get ourselves back in it - and for all intents and purposes I expected to get something.

“I thought the crowd were great, I thought they loved the fact Aiden O’Brien came on. I thought he did fantastically well.”

The manager added: “It was great for Lee Gregory to get his goal and maybe he is starting to show what he can do for us.

“I thought Chaplow did excellent. I think it is harsh on Justin Hoyte, he has been out for a long, long time and he is the only natural full-back.

“People were screaming at me ‘get him off, get him off, get him off’ but he has worked really, really hard. It is not his fault Carlos is injured.”