Millwall boss makes admission over on-loan Tottenham striker Troy Parrott

Gary Rowett had been contemplating bringing Troy Parrott on at half-time in Millwall’s match against Cardiff City on Saturday – only for Matt Smith’s goal to change his mind.

The 18-year-old Tottenham striker was back in the Lions matchday squad at the weekend for only the second time due to quad and ankle injuries forcing him on to the sidelines.

Parrott replaced Smith in the 76th minute at The Den. The latter had headed the Lions ahead 10 minutes before the break.

“If we hadn’t have scored just before half-time he probably would have come on at half-time,” said Millwall boss Rowett. “I suppose the ideal game time would’ve been 45 minutes.

“I toyed with starting him but I thought it was a risk too far, too soon.

“He hadn’t experienced Championship football and I just thought we should give him a flavour of it.

“Because we were winning and because we had a spell where we looked relatively comfortable just before the [Cardiff] goal I didn’t want to change too much because you can lose a bit of energy. I made changes but I don’t think the changes contributed to us conceding a poor goal.

“It was just good to get Troy out there. His performance didn’t really matter too much, it was about getting him out there and getting him through it.”