Liam Rosenior lamented two dropped points after Hull were pegged back in an entertaining 2-2 draw with Millwall.

Joe Bryan’s first Lions goal secured a point for the hosts but Hull were excellent in the first half, and led 2-1 at the break thanks to goals from Jaden Philogene and Adama Traore.

Duncan Watmore had put Millwall ahead in the eighth minute and the hosts had chances to win it late on, leaving Hull manager Rosenior relieved to hear the full-time whistle – despite bossing much of the match and failing to convert several chances.

“It feels like two points dropped, absolutely,” he said.

“So many aspects of our play are so good. What we need to improve on is killing games whilst we’re on top. We haven’t done that this season and we should have more points as a result.

“The one benefit is I’ve got a great young group here and they’re learning. We made young mistakes in and out of possession. That’s the risk you have when you’ve got young players.

“They need to learn quickly and I need to learn and analyse quickly in terms of how to help them.

“I think everybody in the stadium can see the potential in this team today. The frustrating thing for me is we’ve come such a long way and we should have won this game.

“My first game was here and we had to dog it out with 10 men. The team’s evolving, we’re getting better.

“The next part of that evolution is killing that game off. I promise you we will win a lot of games playing this way this season. They threw the kitchen sink at us, but we need to be braver to play.”

Hull have lost just one of their last 10 matches, and that came at high-flying Ipswich in midweek, while Millwall sit just two points behind them in a congested table.

The Lions’ home form has been uncharacteristically patchy, winning just two of their last seven, and manager Gary Rowett admits it was a game of two halves but praised Millwall’s spirit for bouncing back.

“We responded really well to going behind. We have to make the changes tactically, formation-wise and personnel-wise and that did the trick second half,” he said.

“We needed a bit more composure and maybe we could have got the third. I didn’t think we had amazing chances, but we had one or two where maybe we could have won the game.

“I’m really pleased with the response. We didn’t cope with the two goals very well again and I spoke to the players about that at half-time.

“Hull are a really good side, Liam’s done a great job. They’re really hard to play against. When you press then they just bounce it round you.

“We were too passive. We went a goal up and their two goals were two very poor moments from us. The first one we let a runner go between two players unopposed and the second one was a mix up.

“All you can do then is respond. We didn’t want another home defeat because I think that would have been really damaging.”

Joe Bryan’s first goal for Millwall earned them a 2-2 draw in a frenetic Championship encounter with Hull at The Den.

After Jaden Philogene and Adama Traore had turned the game around for Hull following Duncan Watmore’s early opener, Bryan struck to secure a point.

The Lions’ home form has been patchy, winning just two of their last eight matches, but they took the lead through Watmore in the eighth minute.

Bryan’s free-kick was met with a miscued clearance by a City defender and the Lions attacker was able to squeeze his shot past Ryan Allsop at his near post to open his account for the campaign.

The Lions had started confidently and Luton loanee Allan Campbell drove into the side-netting soon after.

But that assured start only lasted until the 25th minute. Millwall were unpicked by one pinpoint long ball by Hull centre-back Sean McLoughlin, Philogene timed his run perfectly to get in behind the hosts’ centre-back pairing of Jake Cooper and Wes Harding and threaded his finish beyond Bartosz Bialkowski.

The visitors then looked a threat with nearly every attack they mounted. Bialkowski scrambled the ball around the upright when Liam Delap’s cross deflected off Cooper.

Another defensive lapse saw Hull take a 30th-minute lead. Danny McNamara’s misplaced header back to Bialkowski was seized on by Philogene, the young Tigers winger deftly cut back inside the Millwall full-back and cued up Traore to gleefully lash in from close range.

It could have got worse for the Lions before the break. Scott Twine went close with a free-kick and then could not quite make contact with Delap’s delivery.

Lions boss Gary Rowett reacted by switching to a back five and made a double change with Tom Bradshaw and Brooke Norton-Cuffy replacing Watmore and McNamara.

A Casper De Norre strike was tipped over by Allsop but the summer signing from OH Leuven then assisted Bryan for the 54th-minute leveller, with the former Fulham and Bristol City left-back showing great composure to cut inside a marker and send a low drive past Allsop.

The second period belonged to Millwall as they pressed for a winner, Bradshaw saw his header from a Bryan free-kick fly narrowly past the far post.

There was a big chance in stoppage time as two Lions substitutes combined. Romaine Esse put Aidomo Emakhu through but the Republic of Ireland U21 international thrashed his effort over from inside the penalty area.

Hull, who had been unbeaten in eight league games before their midweek loss to Ipswich, looked happy to settle for a point.

Millwall boss Gary Rowett was delighted with his side’s response to Saturday’s defeat to Swansea as they moved up to 11th in the Championship on the back of a superb defensive display in a 2-0 win at Plymouth.

Zian Flemming put Millwall ahead in the 59th minute and then teed up substitute George Saville for a second goal in the seventh minute of stoppage time to seal victory.

Rowett said: “We needed to respond from our previous game at home, which we weren’t happy about but this is what the Championship is made of.

“You have got to move on very quickly and find a way to win the next game and that’s what we’ve done.”

He said: “When I saw it was Plymouth away, I knew it would be a tough game.

“I have seen them play and seen a lot of their games at home. We saw the Norwich game and they have got a lot of quality and a lot of energy and more importantly a lot of confidence.

“You can feel the excitement and the energy of the crowd. I knew it would be a test for us today and our game plan was to sit a little deeper and see if they can break us down and entice them forward.

“I just felt that would open up some spaces on the transition.

“They are a good side and I think they will win a lot of games here.

“We were diligent and did enough to stop them breaking us down.

“You have to ride out some of those defensive moments of pressure and I felt our forward players would have the beating of their defenders if we got into those transitions spaces.

“You wait for that moment of brilliance and I think Duncan Watmore showed it, lovely touch bought it down, cuts inside and a lovely little flick pass with the outside of his boot and then Zian with a good timing of his run, splits the defence and lifts it over the keeper.

“It’s a good-quality finish. Just at that moment when you think ‘are we going to see it out?’, it’s always nice to get that second one. It doesn’t half make you feel good because you know the game is over then.”

Frustrated Argyle boss Steven Schumacher said: “Obviously we wanted to get a better result than that.

“I felt the way we played, especially early on in the game, the way we passed the ball, the energy and the quality that we showed was really good.

“We got into some dangerous areas but didn’t quite make the most of those opportunities. Some of that was excellent defending from them and some of it was poor decision making from us.

“It was frustrating overall because on the balance of it I thought we definitely deserved something from the game.

“I think we will play worse than that and get a result and as I said, it was not the way we wanted the game to go. Especially once they scored it got harder.

“I think we got in around the back of them a few times in the first half but there was a couple of opportunities where we should have been allowed to continue but the referee pulled the game back on the counter attack.

“Once they got their first goal, I thought they defended their box really well. They weren’t interested in coming out again and did what you expected a Millwall team to do.”

Swansea boss Michael Duff hailed his side’s 3-0 Championship win over Millwall as the best of his tenure as they secured a commanding victory at the Den.

Jamaican International Jamal Lowe opened the scoring with a penalty before goals from Matt Grimes and Mykola Kukharevych sealed the triumph, Duff’s third in charge since taking over in June.

The visitors won their second Championship game in a row having taken only two points from a possible 21 from their previous seven matches.

“It’s probably the best result of my Swansea tenure so far,” Duff said. “3-0 away from home at a tough place to come.

“I thought we saw a bit more of what we wanted to look like. It was some really good football. The reaction’s been good ever since the Cardiff game, where we let everyone down.

“We probably should have had three clean sheets and nine points since then. The players have stuck together through all of it.”

Swansea sparked to life in the 23rd minute when Lowe converted a penalty, awarded after Jerry Yates’ shirt was pulled by Jake Cooper in the box.

Lowe produced a stuttering run-up before sending Bartosz Bialkowski the wrong way to end the hosts’ hopes of a third-straight clean sheet and to notch his second goal in as many games.

Duff added: “The first goal was 40-plus passes going into the build-up to the penalty, which I think should have been a red card as well.

“I knew they would have a reaction. We had to change shape a couple of times, but we survived it. You’re not going to dominate a game for 90 minutes, not in the Championship – very rarely anyway.

“It’s still a long, long way from where we want to get it to.”

Grimes moved Swansea further ahead after 57 minutes, as some neat interplay offered an inviting opening for the skipper and his 20-yard strike squeezed under Bialkowski.

The Lions were unable to take their chances at 2-0 down with Carl Rushworth turning a long-distance strike from Ryan Leonard over the crossbar before the goalkeeper saved Kevin Nisbet’s point-blank effort with his face.

Kukharevych then made certain of the three points for the Swans with an 80th-minute header for a first away victory since April.

Millwall manager Gary Rowett took a different view of his side’s reaction to conceding, believing they showed frustration rather than fight.

He said: “Goals change moods, goals change feelings in stadiums and players’ confidence levels. It shouldn’t do, but that’s the way the game is.

“Sometimes at 0-0 you have to ride those little moments and the first goal was a really poor penalty to give away from where the ball was.

“We got into some decent positions without having a clinical edge. That was the difference.

“I didn’t like our reaction from 2-0 down. I think we have a habit of conceding goals and showing our frustration rather than fighting until the last second.

“Again we had some big moments, but without that goal it gives you nothing to lift the mood and atmosphere.

“It’s disappointing. The third goal summed it up, we gave it away, crossed it to a lad unmarked to head it in. It was certainly three poor goals from us to concede today.”

West Brom head coach Carlos Corberan has called on his players to become a 90-minute team and be more clinical after a 0-0 draw against Millwall.

The Baggies dominated after the break and hit the woodwork twice in 10 minutes in what Corberan described as the “perfect” second half after Alex Palmer saved Zian Flemming’s 27th-minute penalty.

But Corberan rued what might have been after this stalemate became their third draw in a week and took their winless run to four games.

“If you analyse the week, we couldn’t keep the levels of the second halves in the first,” said Corberan.

“And in the Championship, to make an excellent 45 or 50 minutes that tells us it’s not enough.

“That said, even if we do a full game (at that level) it might not be enough because in football what makes the difference is to be clinical in front of goal.

“The more options you create, the more chances and possibilities you have to score.

“Look at the stats in the second half – we had 73 per cent of the ball, the goal expected was 1.86 and their goal expected was zero.

“We did the perfect second half without the reward of the three points. In the first half, we didn’t play well enough.”

Brandon Thomas-Asante missed two chances – including the one that hit the bar – but Corberan defended the striker, who is without a goal in four games.

“He’s doing unbelievable work – he played 90 minutes on Wednesday night and 90 minutes here,” he said.

“It’s not easy to find a player who does what he does.

“You mustn’t forget that one year, two months ago he was playing in League Two.

“He’s still growing, but every time he’s on the pitch he shows a lot of value for the team.”

The penalty came after Kyle Bartley handled Ryan Longman’s corner, but Palmer saved his team-mate’s blushes.

After the break, West Brom dominated. Matt Phillips’ shot was blocked after Bartosz Bialkowski saved Thomas-Asante’s shot.

Then Alex Mowatt’s curling free-kick rattled the underside of the crossbar, before Thomas-Asante’s header was deflected onto the bar.

Millwall manager Gary Rowett praised his side’s battling spirit.

“Sometimes in the Championship you’ve got to dig in to get a point and a clean sheet and I thought we did that fantastically well,” he said.

Rowett admitted his side found it hard going in the second half after the spot-kick miss.

“I didn’t think it necessarily caused us problems in the first half but I felt certainly in the second half we struggled a bit,” he said.

“They changed formation – they kept Jeremy Sarmiento really high on the left and Matt Phillips high on the right and it pinned our five back.

“So we decided to change our formation to four at the back because there was no point in having five marking three players.

“It helped us gain a bit of stability but it didn’t necessarily allow us to get out.

“I just felt our use of the ball and our bravery in the second half wasn’t enough to get us on the attack.”

On-loan striker Jay Stansfield’s second-half goal rescued a point for Birmingham against Millwall to maintain the club’s unbeaten start to the Championship season.

Stansfield grabbed his second in two league games after Kevin Nisbet had given the Lions an early lead.

Birmingham’s Scott Hogan could have equalised deep into first-half stoppage time but his penalty was saved.

The West Midlands side started brightly with Lee Buchanan’s dangerous left-wing cross heading for Hogan but the City striker was quickly crowded out.

Juninho Bacuna then sliced high and wide as it looked like the home side were taking control.

But the visitors struck after just six minutes.

City keeper John Ruddy got a hand to Nisbet’s 22-yard free-kick but could not keep it out after Kevin Long had fouled Tom Bradshaw.

Stansfield glanced a header wide of Millwall keeper Matija Sarkic’s back post before Bradshaw’s effort sailed over Ruddy’s bar.

Bacuna went close twice in as many minutes as the hosts battled to get back on terms.

Blues skipper Dion Sanderson headed over Keshi Anderson’s free-kick at the back post when he should have hit the target.

Millwall thought they had gone 2-0 up after 20 minutes.

Ryan Leonard fired in a George Saville corner but the spectacular strike was disallowed after his volley was judged to have hit Jake Cooper who was standing in an offside position.

The home crowd grew restless as opportunities dried up with the visitors defending resolutely.

However, Birmingham were awarded a penalty five minutes into stoppage time in the first-half after Sarkic fouled Anderson as he latched on to a slide-rule Bacuna pass.

But the goalkeeper made amends as he dived to his right to brilliantly save Hogan’s spot-kick – and Ivan Sunjic shot wide from the rebound.

The equaliser came eight minutes after the restart.

Stansfield hammered a stunning shot into the bottom left-hand corner after he ran on to an outstanding reverse pass from Bacuna.

And Stansfield, on loan from Fulham, almost put Birmingham ahead minutes later but his fierce attempt was well dealt with by Sarkic.

Millwall still posed a danger and Ruddy had to be alert to smother Saville’s 25-yard effort on his line.

City midfielder Krystian Bielik headed away Brooke Norton-Cuffy’s attempt as the frantic contest continued to swing from end to end.

Sarkic acted quickly to cut out Sunjic’s drilled cross into the six-yard box in the closing minutes.

A final chance fell to left-back Buchanan who blasted high and wide as Birmingham pushed forward hunting a late winner.

Gary Rowett hailed a determined Millwall performance after they ended a run of three straight defeats to beat Stoke 1-0.

Rowett labelled his team as “lacklustre” after their 3-1 loss to Norwich last week and has faced criticism from Lions fans following a poor start to the season.

But Kevin Nisbet’s excellent first-half finish was enough for a fifth win in six games against the Potters, who missed a host of second-half chances.

“I’m pleased for the players. I’m still the same manager as I was last week but a little bit happier,” Rowett said.

“I understand the fan criticism. When you pay your money you take your choice but I knew that our fans would get behind us if we put the relevant energy and aggression into the game. That’s what they want to see and that’s what I thought we gave them.

“Certainly, first half I thought we were very good. We played on the front foot, we played forward early, we supported quickly, played off those second balls. We caused Stoke quite a lot of problems, we scored the goal with a good finish to give us that slender lead.

“(Nesbit) just has that calmness around him when he’s in and around the box.

“Stoke made a good tactical change at half-time but we’ve dug in and had to be resilient.”

Millwall were the stronger team in the first half and found the breakthrough when Stoke failed to deal with a looping long throw from the right, bouncing kindly for Nesbit to find the bottom right corner.

Stoke came into the game after a quadruple substitution at half-time. Andre Vidigal went close with a one-on-one and forced a fine save from Matija Sarkic, while Tyrese Campbell hit a post and Wouter Burger had a late drive fizz wide.

Stoke dialled up the pressure as the heavens opened and Campbell had a shot blocked by Shaun Hutchinson before Mehdi Leris shot just over in a scramble.

Potters manager Alex Neil is adamant his team deserved at least a point after camping inside the Millwall half.

Stoke have signed 10 players this summer, including three in the past week, and Neil admits it will take for them to gel – but still wants to add more to his squad before the deadline.

“I’m not in the habit of taking four players off at any one time ever, but I felt as if I needed to impact the game in a positive manner,” he said.

“In the second half, we were excellent and deserved to get something from the match. I thought the chances we had second half, you could argue we should have won it really.

“I was concerned how quickly the new players will bed in, how quickly can they adapt, but on the evidence of the second half, I think the answer was there.

“So when you say ‘stutter’, the first half was disappointing, the result is disappointing but the second half there were hugely encouraging bits.

“We’ve still got to add, we know that, this was always going to be the case for us. The fact is we had won three games out of four this season so far, we’ve won three games out of five now. I think you can see that we’re a good side.”

Millwall manager Gary Rowett was especially disappointed with his side’s 1-0 defeat at home to Bristol City as it came on the day the club paid tribute to late chairman John Berylson.

This was the Lions’ first home league match of the season and those in attendance paid their respects to American Berylson, who died in July aged 70 having taken over the club in 2007.

The home side proudly wore T-shirts with Berylson’s face printed on the front during their warm-up, while American flags were unfurled in the Dockers Stand and wreaths were laid behind each goal by the captains.

On the pitch, though, Matty James’ strike four minutes into stoppage time ensured it was the Robins who came away with all three points, with Rowett upset that the team could not produce a performance to match the occasion.

He said: “The tribute to John was absolutely wonderful. His family being here was all the more special. The minute’s applause was immaculately done by both sets of fans. The atmosphere was brilliant.

“It’s particularly disappointing because – I’m a manager, you feel responsible – John’s family were here and you want them to have a positive experience at a game like this.

“We lacked energy, a little bit of spark. I thought it was a nothing game. It was a game that looked destined to fizzle out.

“We didn’t play with enough zip, energy, we are at home and have to make the running, get on the front foot. At times it felt soft, we haven’t really put our marker on the game physically.

“I expect the players to drive it a little bit more on the pitch – I think at times we need to show more determination. I felt we were waiting to show quality. I thought we were a little bit wasteful on the ball.

“We’ll have to lick our wounds.”

Bristol City had to wait until the final stages to break the deadlock, but came away with three points in their first game since selling Alex Scott to Bournemouth.

It was fitting that his midfield partner James was the man to clinch all three points, finding the bottom corner after a long throw-in.

But while that goal was fairly direct, manager Nigel Pearson explained that the plan had been to make Millwall run as much as possible.

“We are a side that are capable of out-running teams,” Pearson said. “We wanted this to be a running game. Their three centre-backs are not as mobile as our forwards. We wanted to stretch them.

“Our energy levels were great. I thought we were always dangerous. What gets results like this is the psychological aspects of dealing with situations.

“We dealt with their set plays well. That hasn’t always been the case for us. We’ve worked hard over the last two seasons to put that right.

“We have to be consistently good. That’s where the growth of the side will be measured this season.

“We dealt with what is an important occasion for Millwall – it’s important to be a part of that and show respect but be professional too.

“I thought we were positive from the start until the end. I think we thoroughly deserved to win the game. It’s a tough place to come. We were quite accomplished.”

Bristol City began life without Alex Scott in fine fashion as skipper Matty James smashed home in stoppage time to snatch a 1-0 victory at Millwall.

James – playing without midfield partner Scott, who was sold to Bournemouth this week for a fee that could rise to £25million – found the bottom-left corner from a long throw-in from the right to earn Nigel Pearson’s side their first victory of the Sky Bet Championship season.

The visitors, who drew against Preston last weekend, were good value for the victory and their travelling contingent celebrated behind the goal long after the final whistle.

Gary Rowett’s Millwall side were too sloppy in possession and lacked creativity.

Duncan Watmore huffed and puffed, but his energy alone was not enough. A blocked, low strike from the forward after a neat dummy from Zian Flemming was as good as it got.

This was Millwall’s first home league match of the season and so all in attendance paid their respects to late former chairman John Berylson, who died in July aged 70.

A 114-page tribute book told stories by people from across the globe of the American who took over the Lions in 2007.

The home side proudly wore T-shirts with Berylson’s face printed on the front during their warm-up and American flags were unfurled in the Dockers Stand, with wreaths laid behind each goal by the captains.

The first shot on target came from Millwall, who were unchanged from their 1-0 away victory against Middlesbrough on the opening weekend. Left-back Murray Wallace got on the end of Flemming’s cross but his header from 10 yards was straight at goalkeeper Max O’Leary.

A lovely dummy from Flemming – who boss Rowett is confident of keeping after Burnley dropped their interest in the Dutchman – opened up a chance for Watmore but his low strike from a central area was blocked.

Midfielder Joe Williams was then booked for a tackle on the counter-attacking Watmore that would have been more suited to Twickenham than the Den.

For the final 15 minutes of the first half it was all City. A trio of corners were followed by a couple of free-kicks that enabled Williams and then James to pump the ball into the hosts’ box but to no avail.

Mark Sykes, making his first start of the season, had some joy on the right wing.

The opening exchanges of the second half were sloppy, particularly from the home side, with the groans from the stands strengthened as passes went astray.

City substitute Anis Mehmeti’s strike from the left went wide but then, with a minute of stoppage time to go, James’ effort found the bottom corner to send Bristol City home with three points.

Ruben Selles saluted his red-hot Reading young guns after a stunning 4-0 Carabao Cup win over Millwall at The Den.

Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan’s double and late strikes from Charlie Savage and Mamadi Camara fired the League One side to a shock victory against their misfiring Championship opponents in the competition’s opening round.

Former Southampton boss Selles picked a youthful side with an average age of just 21 and hailed his players’ dynamism after a memorable night in south London.

“The boys did an amazing job from the first minute until the end of the game,” he said.

“Our recruitment has been good, and [the young players] have been trying to adjust themselves to the system.

“The way we play suits a lot of them – the dynamic football, aggressive on the pressure and very good in transitions.

“Today for us, everything came together – we have an identity, we know what we want and it doesn’t matter who plays for us: we want to try and put our stamp on the game.

“It’s good to see the young players are able to make that performance today.”

The Royals grabbed the lead in the very first minute when Ehibhatiomhan poked home over Bartosz Bialkowski.

And they seized their second at the start of the second half when the Nigerian striker rifled in from close range.

Former Manchester United star Savage grabbed his first goal for the club with a fine free-kick into the top corner before Camara’s late tap-in inflicted more misery on a near full-strength Millwall.

Lions Boss Gary Rowett, whose team had beaten fellow Championship promotion-chasers Middlesbrough 1-0 in their season opener at the weekend, said: “It was more disappointing than frustrating.

“We went quite strong after the result at the weekend and off the back of that, we wanted to win another game and roll it forward.

“I thought it might be better to try and get a bit of momentum but that didn’t go well.

“I thought Reading thoroughly deserved the win – they were far better than us, they ran with more intensity and looked like they wanted to fight and play for each other more than we did.

“We got what we deserved and they got what they deserved, which is a cracking win for them.”

Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan’s double helped rifle Reading to a shock 4-0 Carabao Cup win over Millwall at The Den.

The Nigerian striker netted early in both halves before substitute Charlie Savage’s free-kick and Mamadi Camara’s late strike fired Ruben Selles’ League One visitors to an impressive first-round triumph over their Championship opponents.

The Royals grabbed the lead in the very first minute when Ehibhatiomhan pounced on Caylan Vickers’ prodded pass to poke home over goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski.

They should have scored a second just 10 minutes later when Vickers blasted wide with only Bialkowski to beat after being put clean through by Camara.

Gary Rowett’s hosts grew into the increasingly fiery contest and rallied for a first-half leveller but were unable to properly test Royals shot-stopper Coniah Boyce-Clarke as they remained a goal behind at the break.

Selles’ side came close to doubling their lead just after the interval when half-time substitute Femi Azeez shot wide from distance.

But they seized the crucial second just moments later when Bialkowski could only parry Vickers’ shot straight into the path of Ehibhatiomhan, who slammed home from close-range.

Savage – son of former Wales international Robbie – grabbed his first goal for the club with a fine free-kick into the top corner before Camara’s late tap-in inflicted more misery on Millwall and capped a comfortable night for Selles’ resurgent Royals in the capital.

Gary Rowett is happy for Millwall to continue flying under the radar in their quest for a Championship play-off spot after starting the season with a 1-0 win over Middlesbrough.

Romain Esse’s 79th-minute strike secured victory at the Riverside for the Lions, who missed out on a top-six place on the final day of last term after their capitulation in a home defeat to Blackburn.

The Lions have strengthened with the addition of five senior players this summer, yet when most pundits were making predictions of who would be challenging for promotion this campaign, Millwall rarely featured on their lists.

Rowett accepts that his club might not have as high a profile as some of their Championship rivals, but is hoping they once again punch above their perceived weight over the course of the next nine months.

Rowett said: “It doesn’t bother us – we enjoy that underdog tag. We’ve had four seasons where we’ve been very, very close to the play-offs, and the last two seasons have gone to the last game.

“If people write us off, maybe that’s people who haven’t looked at our squad. I think we’ve strengthened well and I think we’ve got a good squad.

“If you look at this division, it’s always easy to pick the big-name teams or the teams that have come down from the Premier League, and I understand that. Nine times out of 10, those teams bounce back up because they have the quality and the resources.

“I’d expect a club like Middlesbrough to be ahead of us in people’s thoughts of what’s going to happen at the end of the season, but that doesn’t stop us from being what we are.

“People label Millwall a certain way, but if you look at today, yes we defended diligently, yes we transitioned well, but we actually played some really good football as well and we’ve got some talented players.”

That talent was apparent in Millwall’s winning goal, with two young substitutes combining to unlock the Middlesbrough defence.

Aidomo Emakhu skipped clear down the left to slide over a low cross and Esse produced a composed curled finish to claim his first senior goal.

The result was a setback for Middlesbrough, who continue to pursue a new left-back and centre-forward ahead of the transfer deadline.

Michael Carrick accepts his side looked short in the final third, although he did not want to attribute the final result to a lack of transfer activity in the last couple of weeks.

Carrick said: “It’s disappointing. We came here to try to win the game, but in the first game of the season, sometimes you don’t really know what to expect.

“I think we had good players on that pitch, who were capable of playing in a good team and playing well. They were capable of scoring goals and creating goals.

“Just because we lost the game, it doesn’t always mean what people might label it with. The players are definitely good enough. It doesn’t stop us from wanting to improve, but it’s an easy throwaway thing to say that because we didn’t win and we didn’t score, we need (new) players to get to where we want to be.

“I would like to add players, but I’m really happy with the players we’ve got in the squad.”

Romain Esse’s first senior goal enabled Millwall to start the new Sky Bet Championship season in style as they claimed a 1-0 win at Middlesbrough.

Second-half substitute Esse, 18, had only been on the pitch for five minutes when he latched on to Aidomo Emakhu’s low cross and his excellent first-time finish found the top corner.

The 79th-minute goal was no more than Millwall deserved given their superiority to that point, with Zian Flemming and Kevin Nisbet also having gone close to a breakthrough.

Middlesbrough, who made the play-offs last season, were disappointing, with their need for additional signings in attack glaringly apparent throughout.

Millwall were the better side for most of the game, with Flemming immediately striking up a decent understanding with fellow forward Nisbet, who joined this summer from Hibernian.

Flemming fired a side-footed effort just wide of the left-hand post in the fourth minute after a neat lay-off from Casper De Norre, and went close again seven minutes later when a short-corner routine involving Joe Bryan ended in him flashing a low drive across the face of goal.

Former Middlesbrough forward Duncan Watmore threatened for the visitors midway through the first half with a shot that was blocked by Paddy McNair.

Watmore was in the thick of the action again nine minutes before the interval as he broke towards the 18-yard box before firing in a shot that looped over the crossbar via a deflection off Dael Fry.

Middlesbrough’s first-half attacking was generally ineffectual, with Millwall’s five-man midfield denying the home side’s players time or space on the ball.

Boro did have the ball in the net in the 39th minute, but it had crossed the byline for a goal-kick before Matt Crooks pulled it back for Hayden Hackney to stab home.

Crooks threatened at the start of the second half, stroking a first-time shot over the bar after Morgan Rogers laid McNair’s cross into his path, but Millwall should really have taken the lead a couple of minutes later when Bryan failed to find the target after Flemming slid over an inviting cross from the right.

With Millwall continuing to carve out the better chances, Boro were indebted to new goalkeeper Seny Dieng for keeping the scoresheet blank on the hour mark.

Watmore released Nisbet through the middle, but Dieng was quick off his line to save the Scot’s shot.

There was nothing Dieng could do when two of Millwall’s substitutes combined to break the deadlock with 11 minutes remaining though.

Emakhu skipped away from McNair to break down the left touchline and, after he slid a low cross into the 18-yard box, Esse curled a superb first-time finish into the top corner.