Millwall's Playoff Curse: Another Heartbreaking Exit

Millwall’s playoff curse tightens its grip. Again.

For the fourth time, the club stood one step from the Premier League and fell through the same trapdoor. Semi‑finals in 1991, 1994, 2002 – and now this. This one will sting more than the rest. Alex Neil’s side finished 10 points clear of Hull over the season, missed automatic promotion by a whisker on the final day and walked into the night as heavy favourites.

They walked out of it broken.

Because in a tie that was supposed to be about Millwall’s march to Wembley, it was Mohamed Belloumi – a substitute, a wildcard – who tore up the script with a stunning opener, and Joe Gelhardt who twisted the knife with the second. Sergej Jakirovic’s Hull, the side with the modest budget and the sixth‑place finish, are heading to the playoff final. Millwall are heading back into the what‑ifs.

A night loaded with expectation

Neil knows this stage. He took Norwich up through the playoffs in 2015, then jolted Sunderland back to life in 2022. All week he had urged Millwall’s support to turn The Den into something unforgettable.

They did their part. The first roar of “No one likes us, we don’t care” rolled around the ground as the teams emerged, not as a slogan but as a promise. This was supposed to be their night.

The backdrop was already raw. The first leg had been dominated by Ryan Leonard’s disallowed goal, which Neil insisted should have stood, and ugly scenes at full time when police had to separate rival supporters. Hull’s travelling fans, some of whom might have thought twice about coming to southeast London, were greeted by free T‑shirts from the club’s chair, Acun Ilicali, a small gesture for a big journey.

On the pitch, Jakirovic had one more surprise to spring.

Hull flip the script

The Hull manager, who arrived last summer and has quietly pushed this squad far beyond what their budget suggests, ripped up his usual plan and switched to a back five. It unsettled Millwall from the first whistle.

Hull, who had already won 3-1 here in December, settled quicker. Charlie Hughes forced Anthony Patterson into the first save of the night from a free‑kick on 10 minutes, a reminder that sixth place had not come with an inferiority complex.

Millwall needed a jolt. They got one.

Thierno Ballo’s header was scrambled off the line by Kyle Joseph, The Den erupting as if the ball had already gone in. Moments later, Ivor Pandur had to beat away a fierce drive at his near post from Femi Azeez, the winger who has climbed from the eighth tier with Northwood to become one of Millwall’s most dangerous players. Again, he looked the man most likely.

The pressure rose, the noise followed. But Hull did not fold.

John Egan went close with a header from a free‑kick, then Oli McBurnie forced Patterson into a sharp save from a wicked Ryan Giles cross. The pattern was set: Millwall throwing punches, Hull countering with their own.

Five minutes before the break, The Den howled for a penalty. Casper De Norre’s cross smacked Hughes on the arm, but it hung naturally by his side and referee Sam Barrott instantly waved the appeals away. No pause. No debate.

Soon after, the mood turned nastier. Joseph’s night ended abruptly with a painful‑looking ankle injury. As he limped off with the physio’s help, the Millwall fans booed him from the pitch. Sympathy was in short supply.

The moment the tie slipped away

Hull came out for the second half as if they had never been in the dressing room. Within minutes, Regan Slater carved open Millwall’s back line to set up McBurnie, whose effort beat Patterson but not Tristan Crama, the defender somehow hooking the ball off the line.

Millwall huffed. They pressed. They ran. But they did not create.

Neil rolled the dice. Mihailo Ivanovic came on as he shifted to a 4-4-2, then the experienced pair of Alfie Doughty and Barry Bannon followed. The message was clear: throw everything at it.

The breakthrough came. Just not for them.

Joseph’s replacement, Belloumi, had been a constant irritant down the left, stretching Millwall, asking questions. Then he produced the answer. Collecting the ball on the edge of the area, the Algerian curled a superb shot beyond Patterson, the ball kissing the far post on its way in. For a heartbeat The Den fell silent. The away end did the rest, a riot of noise and colour as Hull’s players swarmed towards their match‑winner.

Millwall staggered. Bannon almost compounded the damage with a loose pass that let Slater in, only for the chance to go begging. Ivanovic then headed over at the other end, a half‑chance that felt bigger than it was because the clock kept ticking.

And then it was over.

Belloumi again found space on the left and this time turned provider. His cross picked out Gelhardt, another substitute, who met it with his first touch. The contact was not clean, the finish not pretty, but it did not have to be. The ball squirmed through Patterson’s fingers and dribbled over the line in slow motion, dragging Millwall’s season with it.

Hull’s rise, Millwall’s reckoning

There was no late surge, no grandstand finish. Just the sound of an occasion draining away from the home side as reality took hold. Hull, the team that crept into sixth, had become the first side from that position to reach the playoff final since Frank Lampard’s Derby in 2019.

They will walk into Wembley with nothing to lose and every reason to believe they can tear up another script.

For Millwall, the only thin consolation is the likely prospect of renewing hostilities with West Ham next season, a rivalry not seen since 2012. That will stir the blood in these parts.

But it will not change the question hanging in the south London air: how many more times can this club get this close before something finally gives?