Millwall: ‘Gutted but proud’ – a season of progress ends in Championship play-off defeat by Hull City

The Scot said: “Did I roll the dice too early? Did I go for it?

“There are loads of bits running through your mind and then even when I’m speaking to Sky they’re saying ‘do you think three weeks ago if you won that game…’ and I’m thinking ‘come on, how far do you want to go back?’

“Do you want to go back to the start of the season? Every team can do that across the season.

“It’s been one of my favourite seasons as a coach because the group have given me so much, the fans have got right behind the team, the owners of the club have given me nothing but complete support, so from that perspective I can only be thankful for that.

“I’m just sorry that we didn’t do enough.”

While Hull can turn their attention to the final against either Middlesbrough or Southampton at Wembley on Saturday, 23 May, Millwall’s focus will turn to preparing the squad to go again next season and try to go one better – be that through automatic promotion or a successful play-off campaign.

“Every year, it’s been year-on-year progression,” former Millwall striker Steve Morison said.

“The teams coming down are going to be huge in the Championship so they need to savour this moment.

“I think they’ve shown they’ve consistently improved. What that looks like, I don’t know, but they need to improve against teams that don’t have the ball.

“From a Millwall point of view, you’d be gutted but proud of the football club.”