Martyn Woolford believes the Lions are much stronger than they were last season and is adamant results will improve.

Woolford gave Millwall the lead at Vicarage Road on Saturday with a superb finish after 12 minutes, but Watford came from behind to win 3-1 thanks to strikes from Matej Vydra, Daniel Tözsér and Gianni Munari.

The visitors certainly held their own against the league leaders, however, and were left aggrieved over numerous questionable decisions, most significantly when Ricardo Fuller’s convincing penalty claim was waved away by referee Robert Madley in the first half.

Woolford said: “Even though we’ve lost today, we’ll take many positives from the game and performances like that will keep our confidence high.

“We’ve come away from home and held our own against a team top of the league.

“We’re obviously disappointed with the result, but we’re not far away - it’s just a few little tweaks here and there.

“Sometime soon it’s all going to come together and we’ll go on a run like we did last year.

“It’s just disappointing that the result has gone against us.

“We conceded three sloppy goals really that’s obviously cost us.”

Millwall currently sit 16th in the Championship, just five points above the relegation zone.

But Ian Holloway’s side were unbeaten in October and this, according to Woolford, is indicative of the Lions’ progression. 

“At the minute we are playing well, we’ve had some good results against some pretty good teams of late”, Woolford said.

“We just need to keep our heads up and not let a defeat like this get us down. We’re worlds apart from where we were last season.”

The 29-year-old insisted Holloway has not set the team any long-term goals, but is determined that the Lions develop and mature as a side.

“He just wants us to keep learning from every game,” added Woolford.

“We need to make sure we learn from defeats as well as wins.

“Every game he just wants us to keep doing the right things and to hopefully go into the next game feeling better than the last.

“It’s just one step at a time at the minute and it’s working well for us.

“We all feel that we’re a million miles away from where we were last year.”

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