DANNY Collins admits Nottingham Forest were simply undone by a Millwall side with a solid game plan – but does believe that the Lions were given a let off by referee Scott Mathieson.
The Reds skipper said he was the victim of an elbow from striker Darius Henderson that went unpunished in the second half, at a point when Forest were still very much in the game.
But Collins also said there is little room for excuses for Forest, after they failed to find an answer to Millwall's tactics.
"He was a bit fortunate to stay on the pitch. He went under a ball and I had a run on him and headed it out of play," said Collins.
"I was running back to get into position and he threw an elbow at me.
"The referee did not see it – it was just one of those things.
"Credit to Millwall, they stopped us playing and got the result by hitting us on the break. We are disappointed, but fair play to them."
Millwall were a strong, physical side, with central defensive pairing Mark Beevers and Danny Shittu and midfielder Liam Trotter all massive men and the front two of Chris Wood and Henderson both also powerful figures.
Collins admitted Forest do lack a little height in their ranks – but says their ability on the ball normally makes up for it.
"We looked at it in training and, with Greg Halford out of the team (suspended), if you took me and Elliott Ward out of the equation, we are not a very big side," he said.
"But we thought that, if we could get the ball down and play the way we wanted to, the height would not matter too much.
"It did not turn out that way, because they stopped us playing out from the back and forced Campy into kicking it.
"In previous matches, Chris Cohen has done well in winning lots of headers against full backs.
"But their left back was not too bad in the air and he won a lot of the aerial balls, which stopped us having another outlet.
"From our point of view, we were not that big up front until Dexter came on.
"But our game is to play into feet or play into channels. We just could not get going on that front.
"Sometimes you take two steps forward and then one backward.
"It is annoying, because we wanted to kick on with another win to add to the run on Saturday.
"Had we done that, we might have established ourselves in the top six.
"To get beaten 4-1 at home is never nice, but it is more disappointing because it was an opportunity missed. We could have progressed again.
"But we will look to bounce back against Middlesbrough."
