Plymouth Argyle's players are desperate for the club to retain their Championship status, coach Kevin Nancekivell declared after the 'hammer blow' of conceding a late goal in a 1-0 defeat by Millwall at The Den.

The Pilgrims know that if they win their season-ending game against Hull City at Home Park next Saturday lunchtime they will stay up, but should they fail to do that they could be caught by Birmingham City and relegated back to League One. Argyle are 21st in the table, one position and a point above Birmingham, who are in the drop zone after drawing 1-1 away to 23rd-placed Huddersfield Town.

Nancekivell gave his assessment of the situation facing the Pilgrims going into the final game of the campaign after seeing Millwall snatch all three points from the clash in south London with an 84th minute headed goal from Jake Cooper.

"It was a hammer blow to us," said Nancekivell. "I didn't think we deserved that. We have to dust ourselves down now and get ready for Saturday.

"The players are flat, they are on the floor a little bit, as you would expect. They realise the severity of everything that is going on and they are desperate for the club to survive in the Championship.

"We will suffer today, we will take our medicine and when we will get back in on Monday we will get everyone back at it. It's a massive game for us on Saturday now.

"We are going to need everybody onside with us, our supporters have been fantastic every week of the season and we are going to need them more than ever on Saturday. Hopefully we can make Home Park as hostile as possible, the lads can work as they did today and get a little bit more of an end product and we should be okay.

"We are not relying on anybody else. We know what we have got to do and let's make sure we get it done on Saturday."

On the match against Millwall, Nancekivell said: "I didn't think there was much in the game. I thought we were competing, it was going end to end. They have got the goal that mattered and we couldn't find a finish to some of our play.

"Really disappointed that we didn't get any points but it's still in our hands. We can go into the last game of the season and know that we are in control of our own destiny."

He continued: "We knew Millwall would come at us for the first 20 minutes. It's quite hostile here. We had to defend set pieces, which we did really well and then as the game progressed we had a little bit more joy. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the goal and they did."

Argyle had captain Joe Edwards playing in central midfield against Millwall because Jotrdan Houghton was ruled out by illness.

Nancekivell said: "Jordan woke up sick this morning. He was all good to go yesterday and then he didn't come down for breakfast and was feeling rough so he was sent straight back to Plymouth.

"We needed our captain on the pitch. Jordan is obviously the vice-captain so Joe went into the midfield to give us some solidity and I thought he did great."