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FA Cup: Millwall boss Ian Holloway apologises to fans after 4-0 defeat at Bradford

Ian Holloway trudges off the field
Image: Ian Holloway trudges off the field at Bradford

Millwall boss Ian Holloway has apologised to fans after his side slumped to a 4-0 defeat at Bradford in their FA Cup replay.

Millwall defender Mark Beevers was shown a straight red card for hauling down James Hanson in the sixth minute and the Londoners never recovered.

It was a forgettable night in a wretched season for Ian Holloway's side, FA Cup semi-finalists two years ago.

Mark Beevers is sent off
Image: Mark Beevers: Sent off at Valley Parade

They are third bottom in the Sky Bet Championship table, have won only two of their last 22 matches and Holloway kept his players in the dressing room after what was a fifth defeat from their last six matches.

Holloway accepted referee James Adcock was left with no choice other than to send Beevers off and said he had never before seen a side of his fold like Millwall did.

"The lack of confidence in the team and in each other, we let a goal in almost straight away," Holloway said.

"You could see how bad it is for everybody and in all my time in football I've never seen a team capitulate as bad as that.

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"All I can do is apologise to the fans. We've got so much work to do. The lads don't look like a Millwall team, they didn't have any fight in them, they don't look like my team.

"Well done to Bradford. To a man they looked like they wanted it more than my lot after the sending off."

Both Bradford and Millwall fans were chanting 'you're getting sacked in the morning' and Holloway admitted those words hurt.

"It's football at the moment isn't it? I've been doing it 19 years and 860-odd games and this is football at the moment," he added.

"I said it would be tough when I came here, but I didn't think it would be as tough as this."

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