Millwall’s 2-1 pre-season win over Eldense on Friday ended on a sour note as three red cards were dished out.Strikes from summer signings Tairyk Arconte and Mark Sykes saw the Lions take a two-goal lead, before the Spanish side bagged a late consolation.Neil oversaw a return to winning ways in pre-season on FridayGettyHowever, the game was marred by ill-discipline as the referee sent three players off.Goalscorer Arconte was shown his marching orders shortly after the restart for dissent.Casper De Norre was then dismissed just six minutes after his second-half introduction.Eldense proceeded to batter the Millwall goal, as they struck the crossbar twice in the final knockings.Lukas Jensen made a fine stop to deny an Eldense chance, while Ryan Leonard cleared an effort off the line.The hosts struck a late consolation and received a red card for their troubles in the final act of the pre-season clash.‘The referee lost control’Despite ending the game with nine men, Millwall boss Alex Neil, who has been tipped to take over as Scotland boss, was full of praise for his players.“I thought we were excellent first half, we moved the ball really well, scored two really good goals. It was nice to see Arconte getting on the scoresheet,” Neil said after the one-goal win.“The first-half performance was excellent, the goals were thoroughly deserved. Sykesy as well pops up with a goal so it’s nice for the to new lads to get on the scoresheet. Neil criticised the referee during their pre-season win over Eldense.Getty“There were a lot of good performances, right across the first half we were the better side.“We moved the ball really well, which I was really pleased with. I didn’t think we did that as well in the last game, so that was a big improvement.”Neil then took aim at the referee, adding: “The referee just lost control of the game. Never in my coaching life have I seen two players getting sent off for very, very little.“It’s not even a tackle – I don’t think there was a bad tackle in the game. “So for him to send the lads off was a strange one. What would normally happen in that instance is he would tell me you need to take the player off and then we take him off and replace him with someone else.“Because tonight Jack Howland couldn’t get any game-time because I was only allowed to put ten players on [as substitutes] in the second half.”Neil continued: “To be with nine men for 30 minutes and concede one goal, which I thought was a bit unfortunate, I was really pleased. “We had Camiel Neghli playing left-back, we had Raf [Lamptey] playing right-back, we had Lenny [Ryan Leonard] playing centre-back, for them to come through it was remarkable, really.”Millwall are next in action next week when they face Gillingham as they step up their pre-season preparations.The south London side will hope to go one better in the coming campaign having made it as far as the Championship play-off semi-finals before falling to eventual winners Hull City.Millwall get their 2026/27 season underway with a trip to Bristol City next month.