Millwall head coach Alex Neil felt their emphatic scoreline against Charlton reflected the dominance his play-off chasers had over their south London rivals.
The Lions had Hollywood royalty in Oscar winners Daniel Day-Lewis and Gary Oldman in attendance at The Den, and they witnessed a commanding performance as the hosts consolidated their position inside the top six of the Sky Bet Championship.
Kayne Ramsay’s early own goal was added to by late strikes from Caleb Taylor, Luke Cundle and Aidomo Emakhu, with Millwall ruthless in the closing stages against the Addicks, who remain perilously close to the relegation zone.
Neil said: “I thought the result was a fair reflection. It could have been even better for us if I’m honest.
“I think my biggest frustration going into half-time was the clear-cut chances we had in the first half and that the scoreline wasn’t more in our favour.
“But in the second half we really turned the screw, got more combinations down the right side, got more combinations down the left side and got into really good positions.
“To see the clinical nature at the end was more pleasing for me because I think that’s the bit right now that we need to be better at if we’re going to really push on.
“We felt the performance in the first half was OK – we can certainly play better – but second half I thought you’ve seen the best of what we are, which is really dangerous in transition, really good in pressing the ball.”
Millwall led after just seven minutes when Femi Azeez’s cross was touched by Charlton goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski on to Ramsay, with the ball rolling into the defender’s own net.
The Lions spurned other chances before finally doubling the lead in the 81st minute when Caleb Taylor headed in Alfie Doughty’s corner.
Azeez was then tripped by Reece Burke to earn a penalty and although Camiel Neghli’s kick was saved by Kaminski, the taker got to the rebound to square for Cundle.
And Emakhu completed a perfect afternoon for Millwall by adding a fourth in stoppage time with a crisp finish into the bottom corner.
Charlton boss Nathan Jones was highly critical of his side’s display, saying: “We got outworked, outbattled.
“They treated it as a derby, we treated it as a day in the sun and we got exactly what we deserved.
“That’s not how we work. We work hard, we compete and we’ve had success from doing that, but we got bullied all over today.
“Millwall were excellent, but we were nowhere near that level.
“We settled nicely and there wasn’t a massive problem in the first half – we weren’t anywhere near our levels, but we made opportunities, moved the ball well.
“In the second half we just got overrun, outbattled and outworked on every single level.”
