Steve Morison believes it is a "minor miracle" that Millwall avoided relegation from the Championship this season due to the off field issues facing the club.

The Lions finished the season 21st in the Championship table, just one place and four points clear of the relegation zone, having mounted an unlikely play-off push the previous campaign in their first season following promotion from League One.

Morison however, has some strong words for those who expected a repeat of those performances this time around, as he told The South London Press: "We had one goal at the start of the season and that was to stay up. We have done it.

“Excuse my French, but people need to get their heads out of their arses and realise we have got the second-worst budget in the league. We have had 20 players to use this season, at times we have only had 18.

“We had unbelievable luck last year [2017-18]. People thinking we were going to do it again or eclipse that were absolutely deluded."

Reflecting on this season, Morison admitted that while he and his teammate would have liked to have recorded a better finish in the Championship table, he feels that would have been an even more difficult task, claiming: “Don’t get me wrong, we wanted to finish higher up the league than we have. But we have stayed up on merit. The tables doesn’t lie.

“As the manager has alluded to, there has been a lot of crap going on this year. What I would say is it is a minor miracle we have stayed up."

Morison himself endured a difficult campaign for Neil Harris' side, scoring just once in 41 league appearances for The Lions.

The verdict

Given how highly they exceeded expectations last season, this season's performance was always going to disappoint a few people.

Had Millwall done this last season however, there would have been few questioning their achievements in what was their first season back in the second tier.

They have now given themselves the opportunity to establish themselves fully in the Championship going forward, and there may be a big summer in store to make sure that happens.