Ian Holloway admitted he understood the boos which rang out after another home defeat at The Den.

Sheffield Wednesday became  the latest side to go home with all three points following tonight’s 3-1 success in south-east London, a result which leaves the Lions in the final relegation spot three points behind Saturday’s opponents Rotherham.

Millwall started brightly and Gary Taylor-Fletcher was causing the visiting defence plenty of early problems, although Wednesday grew in confidence as the first half wore on.

The deadlock was broken seven minutes after the break.

Only a vital clearance from Tom Lees denied substitute Aiden O’Brien what looked a certain goal before Wednesday went straight up the other end and scored through Lewis McGugan.

The advantage was doubled on 72 minutes thanks to a clinical finish by Atdhe Nuhiu before substitute Stevie May completed the home side’s misery 11 minutes later by firing through David Forde’s legs.

There was still time for Diego Fabbrini to pull back an injury time consolation but the final whistle was met with predictable jeers from the few remaining home fans in the stadium on another desperately disappointing night in SE16.

Holloway said: “I’m just doing my job and my job is to keep my team believing.

“Unfortunately when they let a goal in, it looked like we didn’t (believe) so I can understand the crowds’ reaction.

“But for me a huge part of that game, apart from scoring, was as good as we’ve been.

“I’ve never seen so many chances, scrambles and we haven’t scored.”

He added: “I think it was the nature of a double block and then they go down the other end and score.

“I’m sure their manager will be very, very pleased with that score and he will be rubbing his hands on the way back up the motorway thinking how on earth did that end up like that. But that’s football for you.  

“We’ve now got to go away from home and deal with that and then we’ve got to get stronger at home and make sure we don’t let the first goal in because I don’t want to see my team look like that.

“Unfortunately it didn’t happen tonight, it went the other way and what you’ve got to do is bounce back. It’s as simple as that.”

The under-fire boss also challenged his players to have more faith in themselves to get out of the relegation scrap.

He said: “I believe in the people that are in that room that are going to score.

“Do the rest of us? Does the team believe it can come back after it lets a goal in?

“Are we getting affected by the scoreline?

“Did we stop doing what we were doing in the first bit before I then changed the shape of the team - because we are two down - to try and go from back to front a lot earlier, put them under pressure and then it was awful then.”

Holloway added: “The formation that I put out there didn’t get out there.

“It is my fault, I shouldn’t have changed it.

“They weren’t ready for that but you’ve got to roll the dice.

“We’ve done it earlier on in the season and come back and managed to score.

“Ric (Fuller) was one who got two goals coming off the bench against Wolves but unfortunately whatever we did to get us in front it didn’t happen.

“And then when we let a goal in we don’t look the same team, so we’ve got to get stronger than that.”