Neil hoping Millwall strengthen after near miss

Alex Neil almost led Millwall to the Championship play-offs

Alex Neil hopes Millwall can strengthen their squad this summer after narrowly missing out on the Championship play-offs.

The Lions, who were 13th when Neil took over as head coach at the end of December, finished eighth, just two points below the top six.

They would have made the play-offs had they been able to pull off a shock win at promoted Burnley on the final day of the season.

It was a tough task and Millwall lost 3-1, but Neil told BBC London: "The work for next season will start right now.

"We've got a clear strategy of how we want to do things. As always, transfer windows are going to change things - people will come and people will go.

"Like any transfer window, you want to make sure that, come the end of it, you're in a stronger position than when you went into it.

"We've got a lot of players currently missing (because of injury) from the squad who would have a big effect on the team, I believe.

"They'll be back for the start of next season as well as obviously the additions we'd like to try and make in the summer."

Millwall were unable to get the final-day win they needed at Burnley

Neil took charge at The Den just over a year after being sacked by Stoke.

Millwall is the fifth Championship club he has managed - he quit Sunderland for the Stoke job after just six months on Wearside and previously had spells at Norwich and Preston.

He led Norwich to the Premier League in 2015 and Millwall's form under the Scot - 13 wins from his 26 matches at the helm - has raised hopes the south London side will be part of next season's promotion shake-up.

"It allows us next year to be really excited about what we hopefully can try and achieve," said Neil.