Millwall opinion: Blackburn defeat a ‘painful twist of events’ for Lions

It’s rarely a good thing for a referee to be ‘the story’ from a critical game such as Millwall’s home defeat by Blackburn on Saturday.

But Andrew Kitchen’s 59th-minute decision to show the Lions’ Zak Sturge a straight red card for the denial of a clear goalscoring opportunity was, to say the least, highly controversial.

There is of course no video assistant referee (VAR) in the Championship (thankfully), but had it been available, it would have shown the Rovers forward Ohashi 24 yards out, heading away from the Millwall goal and the 6ft 6in presence of Jake Cooper alongside as the last defender.

It might even have shown Femi Azeez being fouled on the very edge – or was it inside? – the Rovers penalty area late in the match.

Let’s just say that the collective view of the 15,000 Millwall supporters inside The Den was that this was a stretch of the rule and a very poor performance by the ref overall.

And that’s putting it politely.

Especially with the chance of the Lions going into second place in the league on the line.