The Lions struck three times in the opening 17 minutes at The Den as they raced towards what was just a second win in eight matches in the Sky Bet Championship.

While this was a welcome return to form for last season’s play-off semi-finalists, it was another troubling afternoon for Derby, as they continue to wallow at the wrong end of the division.

The Rams are now without a win in nine games and they simply were not at the races during the first half, allowing Millwall to rip through their flimsy, if injury-hit, defence.

Neil said: “I think we all know we needed it.

“I thought our start was excellent, to go 3-0 up after about 20 minutes, and I think you could probably see that part of it was some pent-up frustration from all of us.

“There have been certain games that we’ve played recently where we’ve probably not got what we deserved.

“But I’ve been involved in football long enough and if you lose and you don’t get a sequence of results go your way, then everything you do is crap at that point, which is fine.

“So, we needed to show that we’re capable of going and performing, and winning, and what was really pleasing today for me was I felt like we played the game with no fear.

“When you play with fear, you tend to just put it forward and play off second balls, but we played when it was on to play.”

It took just three minutes for Millwall to go ahead when Lyndon Dykes found Kyrell Lisbie in space on the left and he found the bottom corner via a slight deflection.

Lisbie had his, and the Lions’, second in the 10th minute when he tapped in after Dykes had headed Camiel Neghli’s cross back across the six-yard box.

Luke Cundle effectively made the result safe for the hosts after 17 minutes when he ran onto Neghli’s ball over the top and finished confidently.

Millwall captain Jake Cooper got in on the act when he fired Mihailo Ivanovic’s cutback into the roof of the net before Filip Bilbija struck a consolation for beleaguered Derby in the closing stages.

Derby boss John Eustace said: “Obviously, the first 20 minutes was really disappointing. The manner we conceded the goals was very soft.

“Obviously, we’ve got a lot of injuries at the back at the moment – seven defenders out – and it’s only a makeshift defence, but we have to defend better if we want to get any results in games, and certainly in that first 20 minutes we didn’t do it.

“Millwall started very quick and losing Joe Ward yesterday, just after training, was a blow as well.

“We had Max (Johnston) coming in and you’ve got to look at Jack Robinson – that was just his second appearance in the last four months and obviously he has had no pre-season.

“So, to come into an environment like this, at top Championship level, and expect him to perform at the level is always going to be tough.

“I was happy with the response after half-time; we battled and showed a good spirit.”