JOE Edwards says Millwall "went for Middlesbrough's throat" but admitted the quality of Michael Carrick's side ultimately shone through at The Den.

While Edwards was well aware of talk of a potential Boro hangover after their midweek Carabao Cup win over Chelsea, Millwall's boss preferred to focus on the fact Carrick's men had the quality to beat Mauricio Pochettino's side - and said class told on Saturday.

Boro were late to arrive at The Den after a nightmare journey and then suffered a horror start when Joe Bryan put Millwall ahead after just 10 minutes. The Lions then had the chances to extend their advantage, with Jake Cooper missing a sitter when he hit the bar with a close range volley. Lukas Engel then equalised against the run of play, before Boro took charge after the break and picked up all three points thanks to goals from Isaiah Jones and the returning Marcus Forss.

Edwards said: “There was a lot made of the week they had compared to the week we had.

"They had the game Tuesday whereas we had a good week of training, a day off Wednesday. But it works both ways. You can say they maybe didn’t get going initially, and of course they had the terrible journey here too.

"Bottom line is though they beat Chelsea four days ago. The belief that will give you, once the game settled a bit - we went for the throat initially - the confidence they no doubt have from in the week started to show. They’re a quality team, and that’s why they were able to do it.

“It was a very similar story (to the FA Cup loss to Leicester) in how the game played out. Loads to be pleased with in terms of the quality of our performance and control – how clear an idea there is about our team and what we’re trying to be now.

“It’s probably a bit more frustrating because it is the second week running. The goals against us are soft.

“The bottom line is that when you are playing against a team of that level, if you dominate as much as we did for the first half an hour – Coops hitting the bar – you’ve got to cash in, get that second goal and it could be a different day.

“Equally you can’t afford to make errors around your own goal because they will punish you. They took the game away from us by being clinical around our goal and we didn’t do that today. We had moments like their third for example, two vs two, but we didn’t take our chances. When you don’t, football can be brutal like that.”

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Edwards admitted his side ran out of steam in the second half after such an impressive opening period.

"There was a lot to be positive about but it was only really for half an hour and you don’t get anything for winning the first half hour of a football match, especially when you only get one goal from that dominance," he said.

"In the second half, maybe it was just because of the intensity we were playing at and the injuries we’ve got in the squad. Possibly some players still adapting to how we want to play as well.

"I won’t fall back on that though because look at the first half - that’s how we need to be playing. If you look back at that opening half hour, it was extremely dominant from our point of view.

"What I would say is when you’re playing against a team of Middlesbrough’s quality, you’ve got absolutely no right to dominate a game from minute one to 90. Momentum is always going to to-and-fro in a game.

"That’s why when we are so on top, we have to get the second goal. When you don’t, Boro grew, Boro know you haven’t put them to bed, and they grew in confidence."