Alex Neil a happy man as Millwall turn their form around against Bolton

If heavy back-to-back defeats against Southampton and Wrexham were not enough, Neil had to deal with a full-blown injury crisis as he had 11 first team players unavailable to face the Trotters.

While a late flurry – including two goals from Lyndon Dykes – gave the score a flattering look, it turned out to be the ideal response from the Lions.

They will, however, be without midfielder Jenson Metcalfe for three matches after he was sent off for fighting with Bolton captain Josh Sheehan, who also saw red.

Neil said on the sending-offs: “As far as I’m concerned, the kid dragged his boot over the top of Jenson’s head.

“I think Jenson thought he tried to kick him in the head – whether he did or not, the lad (Sheehan) can only answer that himself.

“After that, it was handbags, everybody starts coming in and it’s just a kerfuffle.

“A week’s a long time in football, isn’t it? A week ago, we’d just come off the back of Bristol [City] and Norwich and we’re all thinking ‘here we go.’

“Then we lose a couple of games, we sell Femi [Azeez, to Brighton] at the end of the window, then we lose 10 or 12 players [to injury].

“So, it’s been a testing week, and there’s been a bit of frustration in that we can’t put our best foot forward, in terms of competing and trying to win games.

“But I thought today was really important for us to have a good reaction.”

Millwall were ahead after 38 minutes when Caleb Taylor rose highest at the back post to head in Metcalfe’s corner.

Xavier Simons almost equalised for Bolton when he struck the bar, and the game was still in the balance going into the closing stages.

That was no longer the case after 83 minutes when Dykes nicked the ball off Bolton goalkeeper Jack Bonham and walked it into the empty net.

Metcalfe and Sheehan were then both shown red cards after getting into a scrap just in front of the dugouts.

There was still time for Dykes to add his second after a mistake by Max Conway before Camiel Neghli made it three goals in nine minutes for the Lions in stoppage time.

Bolton boss Steven Schumacher said: “I think it’s an unnecessary red card, on our point, because when Josh falls on top of Metcalfe and drags him on top of him, I was right in front of it.

“He hasn’t made any movement to move his leg towards the player’s head, it was just a natural sort of momentum, the way he falls on top of him.

“Then I think because of Metcalfe’s reaction, and the way the melee happened, with so many players involved in it, the referee thinks it’s more of an issue than it actually was.

“If they just zoom in and have a look at it, they’ll see it, so hopefully that’ll get rescinded.

“We lost a man to injury after we made all our subs, so that gave them a numerical advantage when we were chasing the game.

“Up until the 83rd minute, when Lewis Brunt went off [injured], we were more than a match for Millwall.”