Alan Dunne “guarantees” Millwall will improve dramatically on Friday at Brighton after their embarrassing 5-1 defeat by Middlesbrough at The Den.

Ian Holloway’s team trailed 4-0 at half-time after gambling on a 3-5-2 formation and though they improved in the second half remain 20th in the league and only two points above the relegation zone.

The captain, however, believes Millwall are far from crisis and is optimistic that they can win at the Amex Stadium when, it appears likely, they will again play with a four-man defence.

“We have one a year of these,” Dunne said.

“This is our one for the year. I can guarantee it won’t happen again and we won’t concede five again but the last 10 years I’ve been here I think we’ve had one a year.

“I don’t know what happens but it’s just one of those things that seems to fall into place. Yes it’s unacceptable and yes it’s not right, but we have to move on from it.

“We’ve got another game on Friday [away at Brighton], we can win that and go 16th. That’s how easily things can change in this league.

“I don’t think it’s a crisis at all. It’s just something we tried and it didn’t work.

“[The Den’s] a tough place to play and shows that we have to be at our best to play at this place.

“It’s disappointing. Unacceptable. We tried a formation we’ve not tried before, we’ve only worked on for two days. It didn’t work for, it backfired, so, it wasn’t for us. We’ll move on from that and I don’t think we’ll be playing it again.”

The inspiration behind Holloway’s tactical gamble came from recent successes in switching to a three-man defence, such as in the recent comeback at Bournemouth.

The manager had previously spoken of the need to play at a high intensity and to avoid the hesitancy with which they have started so many of this season’s fixtures but on Saturday they largely produced the opposite.

“[Holloway] lost his rag,” said Dunne.

“He went mad, he was disappointed. But he just wants us to stick together and it’s not a crisis but the goal was disappointing and we have to eradicate them.

“He wanted us to win the second half and show some pride. We scored and they scored in 30 seconds so it was disappointing in that, but we move on. Things can change very quickly.

I know next week we’ll bounce back and be a different team, you won’t recognise the same team next week.

“We’re trying something different and thought that with [Andy Wilkinson] coming back we could try with three centre halves and two wingbacks, it might give us something different, because we’ve been finishing that way of late with games and doing well, but I think when it’s off the cuff, it works. When we actually work on it, and it’s structured, it ain’t the same.

“The last three or four games we finished with a 3-5-2 if you like, but again it was off the cuff and it worked for us, got us back in the game. We started with it and it backfired. I think that’s twice we’ve played 3-5-2 now and lost. Both games we got beat. It’s something we tried and we learn from it and move on.

“Middlesbrough were very good. Their movement up front was very good, foreign coach, their movement hurt us, but again, I think tactically we might have just got it wrong at the back and the early goal was always gonna be hard.

"But Middlesbrough were a very good side, well organised, with a foreign coach, and you can see that they had talent in their team. Very good.

“A solid four, we might have been more comfortable with that.

“I think [Holloway’s] been crying out to play that for a while, the three at the back, with the clientele he’s got, with the two wing backs.

“We’re still trying to find our best team at the moment; you need a settled back four in this league and I think that’s what we’re hoping to have very soon.

“It’s learning. It’s still early days and we’re not halfway through the season. I still think we’ll finish in the top half.”

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