Hapless Stoke suffered their eighth straight defeat as Millwall held onto a lead given them inside the first two minutes by Steven Reid.

The Republic of Ireland international midfielder scored from his side's first attack and Mark McGhee's side then withstood a fightback from a Stoke side who are in danger of sliding back to Division Two.

The Potters have failed to pick up a single point since Steve Cotterill walked out on them to become Howard Wilkinson's assistant at Sunderland last month.

They lost four straight matches under caretaker boss Dave Kevan and have now suffered another four losses under new manager Tony Pulis.

Millwall were able to achieve their third away win of the season without any of their fans their to cheer them on.

And it said much for the character of McGhee's men that they were able to shut out the noise of 13,776 increasingly desperate home fans.

There were only 38 seconds on the clock when Wayne Thomas brought down Neil Harris to concede the game's first free-kick, and Dennis Wise picked out the head of Reid who nodded powerfully past Neil Cutler.

It could have been worse for Stoke as they almost conceded a second goal in the sixth minute.

Paul Ifill delivered a powerful shot from just inside the area which Cutler tipped over, and from the corner Glen Johnson fired wide.

Stoke's tale of woe was summed up in two incidents just seconds either side of the interval.

In injury time in the first half, Shtaniuk forced a brilliant save from Warner after a Hoekstra corner, and Hoekstra crossed seconds after the break only to see Brynjar Gunnarsson's header from six yards rattle the woodwork.

But Stoke failed to break through, and Millwall could have gone further in front when Dennis Wise picked out Steve Claridge but the veteran striker saw his effort blocked by Peter Handyside.

Stoke: Cutler, Thomas, Shtanuk, Handyside, Clarke, Gudjonsson, Gunnarsson, O'Connor, Hoekstra, Iwelumo, Mooney.
Subs: Viander, Cooke, Greenacre, Marteinsson, Vandeurzen.

Millwall: Warner, Johnson, Dolan, Nethercott, Ryan, Ifill, Livermore, Wise, Reid, Harris, Claridge.
Subs: Gueret, Roberts, Lawrence, May, Braniff.

Referee: M Messias (N Yorkshire).