Millwall skipper Tony Craig put his hands up and admitted his side need to learn quickly about the reality of League One football after a 4-0 home mauling by Coventry on Saturday.

Lee Gregory saw a fourth minute penalty saved and within two minutes Newcastle loanee beat Lions keeper David Forde from almost 40 yards.

Ruben Lameiras fired past Forde at his near post to double the advantage on 19 minutes before the lively Armstrong effectively killed the game six minutes later with his second.

Jim O’Brien weighed in with a fourth ten minutes from time to cap a miserable day for the recently relegated Lions, with the captain acknowledging his side were second best.

Craig said: “Losing 4-0 at home is very disappointing because the manner of the first half which we lost it is one of those days where it just seemed everything went wrong.

“But give Coventry credit, they are a good side, kept the ball very well, have a lot of exciting young players and a lot of very experienced players as well.

“Don’t get me wrong, a lot of things went wrong today but you’ve got to give Coventry credit as well.

“We had the penalty, the keeper has saved it and after that it has certainly given them a lift.

“It deflated us a little bit but we’ve got to learn from this as soon as possible.

“We will go through it and there will be no holding back in training because quite frankly today was just one of those days which wasn’t good enough.

“I’ve had results like this before. You’ve got to take them on the chin and move on as quickly as possible.”

If the players were expecting Sunday to be a day of rest they were to be disappointed as a furious Neil Harris cancelled their day off and called them in for training yesterday, with the games coming thick and fast.

Craig added: “The good thing is we’ve got a game coming up on Tuesday night against Barnsley, so for us it is a good time to come on Tuesday.

“We are wounded at the moment. We will come into training, go through what went wrong and certainly concentrate on Barnsley after that.”

Armstrong proved a real handful in the first half but Craig denied he and his defensive colleagues were naive to give the highly-rated Newcastle youngster so much space.

“I wouldn’t say naivety because obviously we knew what he was capable of,” the captain replied.

“But give the boy his due, he took two good finishes today.

“He was good running into space and it just shows why he is a Premier League player. He has shown that today.”

As the leader on the pitch, Craig knows it is his job to rally the troops in the face of adversity, something they certainly encountered trailing 3-0 after just 25 minutes.

He explained: “You try and calm things down.

“Obviously the disappointment hits you first and foremost but you’ve got to look at the boys’ heads and make sure they don’t drop because Millwall fans won’t accept that.

“They won’t accept the performance today but they certainly won’t accept people giving up.”

Having recently turned 30, Craig is easily one of Millwall’s more experienced players and long enough in the tooth to take the highs with the lows.

He said: “That’s the game and the profession we are in.

“You have good times, you have bad times.

“Unfortunately today was a bad time but we’ve got great characters in the squad, we are all in it together.

“We know what the consequences are and we will be fighting for that shirt come Tuesday.

“The gaffer has got major decisions now and the boys who haven’t been in the squad will be putting their names in the window now, quite rightly so after a performance like today’s.”

Arguably the only highlight for the Lions was the second half introduction from the bench of 19-year-old debutant Ben Thompson.

Craig added: “If that is his home league debut then good luck to the boy.  

“I said to him before the game he had nothing to lose, so quite frankly it was a great experience for him and he has certainly put his name in the hat.

“Good luck to him and hopefully he is one of many.”

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