The Lions' Roar: Millwall need West Ham win

Saturday's loss at Birmingham was a similar story. We started well, created some decent chances in the first half hour but didn't take them and were punished by some clinical finishing from loan striker Chris Wood whose hat-trick sent us to a 3-0 defeat.

I can easily say it was not a 3-0 game and we did not deserve to go down by that scoreline but ultimately that's how the game finished. We need be more resilient as a team. It could have been so different if debutant Liam Feeney's 20 yard shot had gone in rather than hit the post.

I certainly don't want to play against teams with on loan strikers in the near future. West Brom must have some good forwards in their squad if they are prepared to let Wood go out on loan.

Early indications show the Championship is even harder than last season as we have a stronger squad this season compared but we are struggling to pick up results.

The team need to pick themselves up and make good that poor result against Birmingham in our next home match against West Ham this Saturday.

Ask any of our supporters and they will tell you this is the most important game of the season, one we desperately want to win above all others.

Our rivalry goes back a long time and despite them being strong favourites to win the league and possessing a team of much greater quality than ours on paper, our supporters still expect us to beat them at home.

If you ignore our last meeting in the League Cup when we were in different divisions, our recent league record against our East London neighbours has been very good, with their team struggling to cope with the atmosphere of The Den.

The game has been sold out for a couple of weeks now and we hope the Lions can respond to the atmosphere and get our season back on track.

The defeat at Birmingham will be forgiven and forgotten if we get a result against West Ham.