Dirty Den

In every relegation battle there are nights that you know have been the ones that got away as soon as they happen. 

When our eight year stay in the Premier League came to an end in 2013 I had that feeling after losing at home to Swansea. Even now I have flashbacks to a ball whipped across the face of goal that James McArthur couldn't quite get on the end of which would have essentially wrapped up a win. And so even though I witnessed our final nail in the coffin at Arsenal, I knew our time was up before then.

Tonight at Millwall doesn't feel quite as bad; mostly because I'll always associate our failings this season with the Mackay era, but it certainly was a big opportunity missed.

With the news that Rotherham are facing a three-point deduction we had the chance to make a fight of this again. And that we did. Except when Gary Caldwell asked to see some fight from his players I don't think he could foresee them taking it quite so literally.

A friend text me at half-time asking how the game was going. My reply was this: "it's got 0-0 and two red cards written all over it." Turns out I gave too much credit to the Wigan defence and underestimated how much a scrappy game can make players' blood boil.

As a rugby fan as well as a football fan, I was a little embarrassed to witness some of the handbags on show at the Den. Ben Flower returns for Wigan Warriors on Thursday after his ban for his Grand Final red card, and he would be ashamed of some of the pushes that warranted jeers from the stands. Martyn Waghorn and Jason Pearce may have paid the price for their aggression tonight with red cards, but I don't think Shaun Wane will be tapping them up for a run out in Super League once the football season is done.

We were outdone by Millwall at the basics. Someone got on the end of a decent cross; Marc Antoine Fortune couldn't do the same for us. They hit us on the break and sealed the game; we tried to break away but had nobody there to finish any chances off.

And so is the story of this mad season. If only we'd had a striker. If only we could win at home. If only we'd had a bit of luck. Well, the potential Rotherham saga was a bit of luck, but we couldn't capitalise.

Don't let this be seen as a reverse of faith in Gary Caldwell - I still think he's the right man for the job. But we all must now accept he's the right man to bring us back up again.