“We didn’t do enough to swing game in our favour” – Gary Rowett’s verdict on Millwall defeat

BY DANIEL MARSH

Millwall manager Gary Rowett had no complaints after his side were comfortably beaten 2-0 by Blackburn Rovers at the Den.

Soft goals in each half from Bradley Dack and Sam Gallagher were enough to seal the points for the visitors.

Rowett admitted the visitors deserved to win after a lacklustre showing from the hosts.

“With the Championship sometimes you have to show different sides to your game – today we didn’t show enough quality and composure in the final third,” explained the Lions boss.

“We concede two poor goals. At the start of the game when Blackburn break and we have chances to clear the ball, we don’t defend with enough aggression. They get a bit of fortune – I think the shot’s going wide, but it gets deflected off the back of Hutchy’s head and it sends Bart the wrong way.

“After that we huffed and puffed and got in decent areas but the last little bit would let us down. As the game goes on we get some chances. Matt Smith has a reasonable chance early in the second half, Scott Malone forces the keeper into a save and hits the post, Jon Dadi forces the keeper into the save on the rebound and George Evans has a good opportunity and maybe has more time than he realises.

“I would say that Blackburn deserved the win today, but there weren’t massive amounts in it. We just didn’t do enough to swing the game in our favour.”

He said:” Yeah, a little bit. We’ve missed a couple of chances at 1-0 to get back into it. We’re putting them under pressure and it’s really can we go get an equaliser to make the rest of the game interesting? We made a poor mistake, we have a chance to play forward and we don’t and we end up [conceding].

“That’s the little bit of frustration and disappointment from today – it’s one of those games where you think can we go again from Tuesday? I had to pick the same team again, Blackburn made six changes, maybe with a little bit of desperation having lost six of the last seven. But they certainly had a bit more energy than us and a bit more aggression in how they played early on in the game. The second goal made it a pretty disappointing afternoon for us.”