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ALEX Neil questioned the application of the new five-second rule after Millwall were twice penalised for taking too long over restarts in their 2-0 win at Bristol City. New rules introduced this summer include a strict five-second countdown for goal kicks and throw-ins, with the Lions falling foul of both early in their Championship opener at Ashton Gate. Lukas Jensen was deemed to have taken too long to take a goal kick, with referee Lewis Smith awarding the Robins a corner. Then the Lions had a throw-in overturned, and it was again given to the home team. Millwall also had a penalty shout waved away when Josh Coburn burst through one-on-one and went down after knocking the ball past Sam Tickle, with Coburn booked for a perceived dive. Bristol City were reduced to ten men shortly after the hydration break when Adam Randell was shown a second yellow card for dragging back Coburn as he looked to counter. The Lions capitalised on their man advantage, with Coburn scoring either side of half-time. Kyrell Lisbie had a late third ruled out for offside. While Neil was pleased with his side’s performance, he was critical of how the new rules were applied. “The game sort of changed a little bit, probably between ten and twelve minutes, when the referee started making some stupid decisions, in my view,” Neil said. “Throw-ins getting turned over, goal kicks getting turned into a corner. Who’s trying to waste time after ten minutes? “I don’t know what’s happened at the other games, but it won’t surprise me if there are loads of games throughout the Championship where that’s going to happen. It’s just a little bit stupid. “In the summer, when we were speaking about it, I did say to them, ‘What happens when we take a long throw? What happens if you’re going to play it out to the back but then they commit enough men forward, so then you change your mind, you’re not going to play it to the back, because they’ve committed three men, you’re going to put it forward?’ “What I was told was that common sense would be applied. I didn’t think common sense was applied in the first fifteen minutes of the game. What I will say is, as the game wore on, it did get better. I thought that, from that point of view, it got better. “That rule, in my opinion, has really been introduced towards the end of games when somebody’s trying to kill a game, not in the first ten minutes when you’re trying to get the pace of the game. Because we started really, really well. We certainly weren’t trying to slow the game down. I didn’t think Bristol were trying to slow the game down either. Sometimes you just need to give your players enough time to get themselves back into shape. Then from there, the sending off is the next big incident after that. “I can’t remember the first booking, but the second booking, when we roll away from them, I wasn’t happy he didn’t let the game go. So the fact that he’s stopping a promising attack, absolutely, it’s a booking. I can’t remember the first one, so I can’t say that it should’ve resulted in a sending-off. “A bit like Josh Coburn’s. If he’s made contact with Josh, it should’ve been a penalty. If he didn’t and George has simulated, it’s a booking. So I’ll need to look at it back. It’s really hard to tell at the time when I saw it. “What I do want to make clear, I didn’t actually think the referee had a bad game. I thought that little ten-minute spell he was getting a little bit too overeager. Then the game settled down, and I thought he managed it really well. So from that perspective, it’s certainly not a criticism. It’s more a criticism of the rules not being applied properly, if that makes sense.”