From the manager's office to the dressing room, Wolverhampton Wanderers found it hard yesterday to come up with an explanation for the dismantling of their Molineux 'fortress'.

For a team boasting a 100 per cent home record, who had not dropped a point at Molineux since March, losing to bottom club Millwall was the shock of the season.

There are those who would have considered Wolves simply on a freakish crash course with fate on Tuesday night.

Former Wolves manager Colin Lee's return to Molineux ought on its own to have been enough. But he had also brought in three lastditch loan signings, two of whom, Adrian Williams and Jermaine Wright were ex-Wolves players. The runes were surely indicating a shock.

When Kenny Miller was finally sidelined with the hip injury that had threatened to rule him out on Saturday, the scene was set. And most Wolves fans would have thought it was really having their noses rubbed in it to be beaten in the third minute of stoppage time.

The fact that the four minutes of added time awarded by referee Uriah Rennie were as a result of former Wolves keeper Andy Marshall's timewasting was the final straw.

Taking all that into consideration, allied to the hope that key man Miller is fit to face Leicester City on Saturday, it was surprising that manager Glenn Hoddle did not simply take the defeat on the chin.

Instead, his own inquest started immediately after the game. "Players out there were doing things we didn't ask them to do," blasted Hoddle. "And the way we conceded that winning goal concerned me in a big, big way.

"It was a real killer for us. We've had our pockets picked and it's not a nice feeling. But it was self-inflicted. It was our own lack of professionalism that cost us.

"I don't want to go into it, but we caused our own problems.

"A game lasts 90 minutes and we've got to show more character and more resilience than that to break teams down if we're to do anything in this division.

"There's still something wrong with this team that we've got to put right. I didn't see enough desire and braveness on the ball.

"Disappointment is an understatement. This is a bitter pill to swallow and we've got to learn quickly from it."

It had all looked so different when Carl Cort headed his fifth strike in three games to seemingly set his team on their way. But the six-goal top scorer was just as baffled as to the root cause.

"I can't put my finger on why it went wrong," he said. "All we know is we've got to put it right. And Saturday brings another home game.

"I don't feel we underestimated Millwall. We prepared right and applied ourselves, we even had a fairly good start but then our performances dipped and we allowed them far too much possession."

To add to Hoddle's existing injury worries, chiefly over Miller and skipper Paul Ince, Darren Anderton left the ground on crutches - but only as a precaution.

"He has a very painful bruised shin," said Hoddle. "I don't know whether it will settle down in time for Saturday but we don't think it is anything major."