Sergej Jakirovic and Alex Neil plan for round two after Lions draw blank at Hull

Sergej Jakirovic and Alex Neil are ready to resume battle in Monday’s decider at the Den after Hull and Millwall contested a cagey goalless draw in the first leg of their Sky Bet Championship semi-final.

Third travelled to sixth as this year’s EFL play-offs got under way, with Mohamed Belloumi going agonisingly close to scoring a magical opener for the unfancied Tigers inside the opening minutes.

Millwall held firm and grew as the match came to a close, with Camiel Neghli hitting a post, Femi Azeez denied well by Ivor Pandur before Ryan Leonard saw a late winner ruled out for a foul in the build-up.

The first leg matched the intensity shown by a packed MKM Stadium crowd and sets things up nicely for Monday’s second leg at the Den, with Middlesbrough or Southampton awaiting the winner at Wembley.

Hull boss Jakirovic said: “An expected game. Very tough, fighting for every ball, every challenge, every duel on the ground, in the air.

“Maybe we had the best chance in the game through Mo Belloumi when he hit the post.

“Then after, of course, they are very dangerous from set-pieces, long throw-ins, so I think that we handle this.

“Maybe we were in some situations very hectic, with the ball around the box, in the box, because you can take an extra touch, you can bring better decisions.

“In the second half, I think that we started very well, that we pressed them, pushed them there until 70 minutes but unfortunately, we didn’t score.

“Then after 70 minutes they had control, especially in possession, but they didn’t create anything dangerous for us.

“In the end, it’s fair result. Like I said, nothing will be decided tonight.”

Millwall counterpart Neil offered a similar assessment on the match, albeit he expressed frustration with referee Gavin Ward for ruling out Leonard’s goal for a Tristan Crama foul in a late tussle with Charlie Hughes.

“I think you could see at the start of the game for both teams that nobody wanted to give anything away,” the Lions boss said. “I thought it was quite a cagey first half.

“I thought we got the better of the first half. I thought the ball stuck when I went up to Josh Coburn. He was excellent in the game.

“I thought we had some good performances across the pitch. I thought Derek Sacko was excellent in the middle of the pitch.

“In the second half we had Cami where he’s hit the post, we’ve had Femi where the keeper has made a really good save.

“And we had the goal that was disallowed, which, yeah, I’ll be interesting to see what Gavin’s views on that are because I thought it was quite harsh. I’ll be interested to see what he thinks about it.

“But, all in all, I thought that you could see that that should give us confidence in the next leg to go and hopefully try and win the game on Monday.”