ALEX Neil questioned referee Andrew Kitchen’s decision to send Zak Sturge off in Millwall’s 2-1 loss to Blackburn Rovers and said he would be “minded” to appeal the defender’s one-match suspension.
With Millwall 1-0 up in the second half, Yuki Ohashi burst past Jake Cooper and looked to be pulled down by Sturge. After initially appearing to wave play on, referee Andrew Kitchen sent Sturge off, leaving Millwall to hold onto their one-goal lead with ten men for the remaining 30 minutes.
Substitute Mathias Jorgensen scored a late brace to overturn that lead and condemn the Lions to just their third league loss of 2026.
“I’ve watched back the sending off, so I’ve got a little bit of context, and I can discuss it,” Neil said. “I don’t think it’s a sending off.
“We’ve got Jake [Cooper] recovering, and the lad is shoulder to shoulder with Jake initially. Zak [Sturge] then tries to get back round him and doesn’t try to foul him. Tries to sort of jump over his leg to come back round because the lad cuts him off, and we’ve got Camiel Neghli recovering.
“But more importantly, the lad’s touch takes him away from goal initially, and we’ve got three recovering defenders, and it’s about twenty-five, thirty yards out. If you’re going to take your next step into the box and potentially shoot unopposed, my understanding of the rules is then that’s a goal-scoring opportunity. I don’t think he would’ve got that far to get there to get that opportunity to score.
“So in my opinion, I didn’t think it was a sending off. That then impacts the game. I’ve already been to see the referee and let him know my thoughts on it, so we’ll see what he thinks.”
Neil was asked if the club were planning to appeal Sturge’s suspension.
“I would certainly be minded to put an appeal in based on what I’ve seen.”
Neil also clarified what he said to the referee after the game.
“I just told him that I disagreed with the decision. I gave him my perspective on the things that happened, and I just said to him, ‘It’ll be interesting when you see it back to see your views on it, because I’ve watched it back on screen, and these are my thoughts on it.’
“He didn’t argue because the problem that you’ve got with the referees is they can’t watch it back immediately, so he can’t watch it and then discuss his view versus my view. All he can tell me is what he thought at the time as it happened.
“So he’s working from obviously sixty minutes ago, and I’m working from sixty seconds ago, having seen it live back on the telly. So yeah, it’s probably not quite fair on him, but I’m just giving him my perspective.”