Ian Holloway accepted the blame for Millwall's embarrassing 5-1 home defeat by Middlesbrough on a day he described as "probably my worst in football".

Millwall trailed 4-0 at half-time after Jelle Vossen's hat-trick and Patrick Bamford's solitary goal.

They remain two points above the relegation zone and their next opponents, 22nd-placed Brighton, after the gamble of starting with a three-man defence backfired against one of the Championship's strongest attacking teams.

"We made some terrible mistakes as a group and individually but I accept responsibility for all of those mistakes because that's my job," Holloway said.

"I take full responsibility but I can assure you it doesn't down-hearten me. This only spurs me on to get it right and make things better.

"These boys have tried their socks off for me recently but that was unrecognisable. That wasn't good enough.

"Individuals didn't win their challenges and I wasn't expecting that because of the size and combativeness of everybody.

"I do apologise to the fans, so blame me. It's not an issue. We've got to roll our sleeves up, accept responsibility and do better.

"I'm shocked and horrified. It was horrendous. It was an awful day – probably my worst in football to be honest because I can't explain the choices we made."

After returning to a four-man defence at half-time – and it shouldn't be overlooked the inspiration behind the tactical gamble came from recent successes with that shape, such as last week's comeback at Bournemouth – Millwall improved to the extent Scott McDonald scored in the 79th minute before Enrique Garcia Mendez secured Middlesbrough's moments later.

"We practised that formation all week and I felt we needed to start that way," Holloway said. "I wanted to get forward, put their back four under pressure and draw them onto us.

"We didn't make the right choices. Just about everything that we could do wrong went wrong.

"If I didn't start with two up front, I'd have been a little bit crazy. Is two up front right all the time? Not really. Did I think it would work today? Yes I did.

"'Boro were crisp, sharp and confident, and everything they hit went in. If David Forde wasn't on form, the scoreline could have been a lot worse than that.

"I don't blame people – I blame myself and that's what I'm going to do. I want to get it right but today it didn't go right. I don't blame my players, I blame me.

"I've got far too many people to pick from at the moment and some of them don't know what Millwall's all about – they haven't had days like this.

"It was an awful day but what it does do is make your strong. I apologise to the fans because that was unrecognisable from how we've been in training the last couple of days."

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