SAINTS boss Nigel Adkins admitted he was “bitterly disappointed” after his side crashed out of the FA Cup last night.
Former Saints loanee Dany N’Guessan and ex-AFC Bournemouth star Liam Feeney scored twice in the last ten minutes to give Millwall a dramatic 3-2 win at St Mary’s.
Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert scored either side of half-time after Liam Trotter had given Millwall a 17thminute lead.
But Ben Reeves had what would have been a winning goal disallowed before Feeney scored a wonder goal in stoppage time.
Bitterly disappointed Adkins said: “We want to get back into the Premier League but I also believed we could have had a good cup run so I’m bitterly, bitterly disappointed.
“We had opportunities to win it and see it out and Ben Reeves actually scored a very good goal.”
Millwall will now be playing Premier League Bolton Wanderers in the FA Cup fifth round a week on Saturday.
“I’m down because I hate losing,” continued Adkins. “I believed in the players and that once they crossed the line we would have enough to win the game and we haven’t done.
“It’s not a good night for us. We got ourselves 2-1 in front and should have seen the game out.
Chasing shadows “The two goals we scored were good and the Ben Reeves goal would have put us 3-1 up.
“But the way we conceded tonight was not good enough and nor was the first half hour.
“The players are well aware of that. We were chasing shadows in my opinion, we got nowhere near it.”
Adkins then deployed Steve De Ridder in a more central role alongside Tadanari Lee and a far better performance followed.
“Once we changed our shape into a diamond formation and got control of it we could have maybe scored four or five goals in the second half,” he continued.
“But I’m disappointed as I wanted to get through this game and I trusted in the players we have to do that.
“We haven’t been winning sufficiently of late, but I want us to play a certain way and am totally responsible.”
Saints will now host Derby County in the Championship a week on Saturday.
