Millwall front pairing earn praise after linking well in 1-0 win over Middlesbrough

BY LUCAS BALL

Millwall boss Gary Rowett was once again impressed with the display of his strike partnership of  Mason Bennett and Jed Wallace as his side made it two wins from their last three matches to close the gap to the play-offs to 10 points.

Bennett and Wallace linked up well on a number of occasions in the first half of Saturday’s 1-0 win over Middlesbrough, with the latter seeing his shot well-saved by Marcus Bettinelli following an inch-perfect through ball from Bennett.

Wallace was key to most things Millwall did well in the first half, with his cross being turned home by Middlesbrough defender Grant Hall to give the Lions the lead just past the half-hour mark.

Rowett said: “Excellent, you don’t look at them both and think they are strikers, but what they do is they give us great movement, that opportunity to play.

“Scotty plays the ball into Mase. He’s got that vison to see Jed’s run, it’s a wonderful ball and actually Jed might feel he should have done better.

“There were some really good performances – particularly Jed and Mason because of that fatigue and the energy they showed on Wednesday, it was always going to be  tough for them to go again.”

Injuries have, of course, been a problem for the Lions all season – though Connor Mahoney finally  returned to the squad against Boro having not featured in a matchday 20 since November 7 against Sheffield Wednesday.

“[It was] really nice to have Connor back, I think after the international break we will have Connor back, hopefully Ken Zohore back, we won’t be far from having Lenny back so we’ve got a lot of  players back,” said Rowett.

“If you look at it today that was always going to be our challenge. We’ve got a lot to do with the  likes of Coops, his shoulder is still dislocated, Murray Wallace needs more training time so we’ve  got lots to do, but it’s nice to have a breather and nice to go into it with a win.”