Money: We went down fighting

Richard Money was obviously disappointed to have been eliminated from the FA Cup but he was pleased with the performance of his players and could not fault them for both effort and endeavour.

“I thought it was a proper old-fashioned FA Cup third-round replay,” Money said.

“In my day it used to be an FA Cup third-round fifth replay or something like that, but I thought it was a good game on a difficult evening and I couldn’t ask any more from my players.

“Over the two games, we’ve thrown everything bar the kitchen sink at them and haven’t been able to get through.

“I thought we had a great response after both goals.

“I thought we were the better team in the first half. I thought we missed a number of decent chances, some of which were half chances, in the first half.

“They had a good spell for ten minutes after half-time and went two in front, but from then until the finish there was only one team trying to score.

“It’s very tough to play any team from the same division four times and not lose to them.

“We had won both League games and they came to the Banks’s and were very tough and resilient, as they were tonight, and at times Millwall played some good football.”

The manager is targeting a positive response from the players in what he expects to be testing circumstances after finally losing the unbeaten run, which stretched back to September.

“It’s our first defeat in 19,” he said.

“We’ve forgotten what it’s like to lose and it’s not very nice.

“We’ve got to pick ourselves up and respond in the right way at Bristol Rovers on

Saturday, which won’t be easy either. It will probably be our worst pitch.

“That’s three games in a row now that we’ve played in really tough conditions and a really heavy pitch in heavy rain and wind and it takes it out of the players.

Money dismissed suggestions that the loss of Ricketts and Mooney played a part in the defeat.

“Every club misses its best players when they’re out - it’s the nature of the game, but you’ve got to be able to cope,” he said.

“I don’t worry about

Ricketts and Mooney not playing tonight because there’s nothing I could do about it.

“I think we did everything that we could - we just couldn’t find the right pass or the right bit of quality at the right time to get the second goal.

“And fair play to Millwall - they defended extremely well. In the first game they defended extremely well and then for the last 30 minutes here, but they know they’ve been in a test.”