Millwall assistant boss Barrett: Gary Rowett was still managing the team from afar

BY DANIEL MARSH

Millwall assistant manager Adam Barrett shared an insight into Gary Rowett’s involvement during this afternoon’s 1-1 draw against Barnsley.

Lions boss Rowett returned a positive coronavirus test yesterday after developing mild symptoms.

Barrett stepped in for the visit of Barnsley and will continue to do so for the games against Preston and Huddersfield as Rowett self-isolates for a period of 10 days.

“We had contact with him from the dugout ,” confirmed Barrett after the match.

“I was in contact with him throughout the game if there was anything he was seeing or anything I was seeing that I wanted to run by him. Like I said, [it’s] unusual! He had the live feed. He’s probably had a better view watching at home than he would have if he was here! That was helpful. It’s not like just because he’s not here, he can’t still lead and [he was still] managing the team from afar.

“Obviously it’s not ideal your manager going down with Covid, so it’s been an unusual 24 hours The good thing with modern technology now is you can still keep in contact, and the gaffer was still able to do his meeting via video. Firstly, he’s feeling okay so we wish him a speedy recovery and hopefully he’s back in the dugout soon. So it’s not ideal, of course it’s not, but we’ve got to get on with it – it is what it is. We’ve got some great staff here – great people that all pull and work together. We do our best and like I said the gaffer’s still got the communication with modern technology being so good now.

“I’m not a tech person, but I think the tech wizards at the club have made it so it was relatively bang on. So it wasn’t a 30-second delay, so he’s telling me one thing and something else has already happened, it wasn’t that at all! So, full credit to the technicians and the analysts that have sorted that out, it was pretty smooth today and we had no issues with that at all.”

PHOTOS: BRIAN TONKS