Millwall boss sends strong message to his players ahead of Sunderland's visit

Millwall head coach Joe Edwards has warned his side that they must improve quickly ahead of Sunderland's visit this weekend.

Edwards, the former England U20s boss, was appointed as Gary Rowett's successor earlier this month and began his tenure with a 4-0 win of Sheffield Wednesday.

In his first home game, however, they were beaten 3-0 by Coventry City and were on Wednesday beaten 3-1 by Ipswich Town - going three-nil down at the break.

Edwards said his side had fallen short on the basics and warned that they must correct it quickly in what is a strong Championship field this season.

"The whole performance was poor – but in particular the first half," Edwards said.

"We needed no warning of what they are capable of. All the things they did in the first half we saw in the build up to the game and we spoke about it and planned for it.

“But we started the game and we are a yard or two off in every moment, the basics were wrong. Similar to our game on Saturday it felt as if once the first one went in it really hurt our belief and from there it looked like there was one team in the game.

“As they have been in many of their games they were clinical," he added. "The shot from the edge of the box we have five or six bodies there and it goes through them. Still we set up tonight knowing that was going to be an issue – they fill the box well and are clinical. When you defend your box like that you’re always going to be in trouble.

"We spoke at half time and we did make a slight tactical change then because you do when you’re in that position, we made it very clear at the start of that half-time discussion that this wasn’t about tactics or system – this was about the basics of the game. It felt like second balls, people running off each other. All those absolute fundamentals you have to get right, in any game of football let alone coming here with the form they are on – I didn’t see it coming. We’ve got a good group in there of honest, hard-working guys but tonight we weren’t at it at all. We got punished.

“Even speaking to the guys who have worked here previously and in the Championship, we feel like it is a strong league this year. If you get the basics like that wrong, you’re going to get many more difficult nights like that. This group – the fundamentals, the body language and the duels – we need to do better than that. We were very clear about that at half-time."

Sunderland are looking to bounce back from their own disappointing back-to-back defeats, with head coach Tony Mowbray admitting that he was left frustrated by the performance as well as the result after the 2-1 defeat to Huddersfield Town on Wednesday night.