CRUISE and you lose.Fabian Wilnis revealed that was the stark warning given by manager Joe Royle before the game with Millwall and repeated at half-time.

By Derek Davis

CRUISE and you lose.

Fabian Wilnis revealed that was the stark warning given by manager Joe Royle before the game with Millwall and repeated at half-time.

While Town didn't lose, the draw felt like a defeat after getting off to such a bright start and Owen Garvan netting after just five minutes.

But the Blues let their standards slip and Millwall equalised through David Livermore five minutes from time, leaving Town deflated.

Man-of-the-match Wilnis admitted the loss of two valuable points was of their own making.

He said: “We knew beforehand that Millwall would make it difficult for us. The manager warned us before the game that if we cruise we would lose and that is what happened.

“After 10 minutes we were cruising with a goal up and everyone thought it was going to one of those easy afternoons and we tried to play some fancy football, but then we could not keep the ball and that gave them a chance.

“Danny Haynes had a chance to score and kill the game off, but he didn't so that summed up our day.

“Even at half-time the manager told us we were asking for trouble with the way we were playing and we just made it hard for ourselves by not keeping the ball.

“After playing so well early on we got sloppy and eventually Millwall kept pressing us. I said to Jason it was going to be a hard finish and I was proved right with them scoring five minutes from the end.

“Even our keeper went up for the corner in the last minute which shows we were trying to win it, but we were very disappointed.

“We only have ourselves to blame as we didn't play anything like we can after the first 10 to 15 minutes. We didn't pass the ball, we could not keep it up front and in a way you could see that Millwall were going to equalise.”

Although the Blues have slipped to 10th, Wilnis insists they will fight to the very end for a play-off place.

He said: “We still have nine games to play, 27 points to aim for, so it is up to us. We have the talent in the squad to finish the season well, but overall we didn't perform against Millwall.”

Wilnis felt he was hard done by to be booked for a challenge after a piece of unsporting conduct by a Millwall player.

Wilnis said: “I heard a shout of leave it it's mine and thought it was Richard Naylor so that is why I left it. But it was one of their players and when I had to chase it back I made a foul.

“The linesman must have heard it and I told the ref as well, but they said they didn't hear it.”