A STRANGE day at the office was how Blues boss Joe Royle summed up Town's afternoon against Millwall.Royle was dismayed at how his side let slip a golden start and then performed below par before eventually dropping two points to a goal that stemmed from a controversial free-kick.

By Derek Davis

A STRANGE day at the office was how Blues boss Joe Royle summed up Town's afternoon against Millwall.

Royle was dismayed at how his side let slip a golden start and then performed below par before eventually dropping two points to a goal that stemmed from a controversial free-kick.

Royle said: “Their goal came initially from what should have been our free kick. One of their lads shouted 'leave it' and Fabian let it go and had to bring him down. The fourth official heard it and was laughing, their manager heard it and was laughing, but unfortunately the referee never did.

“We never cleared the ball after that and they have scored.

“That is not me slamming the referee who I thought had a good game and will get maximum marks, but he missed that.”

Royle felt too many players were below par and that his strikeforce was blunted by Alan Lee's lack of match fitness.

“It was a strange day at the office rather than a bad day.

“We started so well and brightly going one up and we should have gone on to clinch the game. Instead we didn't have a shot for 30 minutes and we over-passed on a pitch that is a crumbling surface.

“But Fabian Wilnis, Jason de Vos Richard Naylor were outstanding, while Owen Garvan took his goal very well and was instrumental in everything bright early on.

“But we had too many okay performance and we had Jimmy Juan who was short of match fitness.”

While not completely dismissing Town's play-off chances, Royle admits it is going to be an uphill struggle. He said: “It was always a big task, but we now have two massive games this week against top-six contenders Preston and Crystal Palace, which we have to go and try to win.”