Millwall boss Gary Rowett: We were beaten by a far better side

Gary Rowett admitted his Millwall side were second best as they suffered their first Championship defeat of the campaign at the hands of an expensively-assembled Fulham side at The Den.

The home side endured a torrid start to the match as the west Londoners cut through their defensive barriers time and time again. Fabio Carvalho – unplayable in the opening 45 minutes – cued up Aleksandar Mitrovic to finish at the near post with just three minutes played. Then the 18-year-old flashed an effort past Bartosz Bialkowski, with Neeskens Kebano slipping the ball exactly where he wanted it in the box.

Millwall could have been completely out of the contest long before Benik Afobe’s 87th-minute goal. Ivan Cavaleiro wasted a glorious chance after being sent clean through by Carvalho.

And Bialkowski made an excellent save low to his left to deny the same player early in the second period. There was also a superb block by Daniel Ballard to repel Carvalho’s effort.

Rowett said: “We were beaten by a far better side. They gave us a bit of a lesson – they outran us, outpassed us and showed a little bit more drive and desire. The first two goals are little glimmers of space and the way they exploited it was incredible.

“Look, they are a good side – as good a side, on that performance, as I’ve seen. I hoped Huddersfield [Fulham won 5-1] was a little bit of a blip but I think they showed tonight that they are the best side in the division. They play with such pace, power and intensity. The simple fact was that we just couldn’t quite get close enough and couldn’t quite match that.

“We always looked like it was physically too much for us. I was disappointed with the goals – players have run off us in areas that if we work hard to stay with them then we stop the goals. We’ve got two players around Mitrovic and we allow him the chance to prod the first one home.

“But sometimes you have to accept that the opposition were better. The last 15-20 minutes we showed a little bit more belief – a good chance for Matt [Smith] and if we score earlier we have a little more time for that pressure to see if we can get a goal we probably didn’t deserve, but at least we’re still in the game.

“We have a couple of moments at the end and show a little bit of fight but we needed to show that a tiny bit earlier in the game, in truth.

“There were too many times today there were misplaced passes. They put you under pressure and close you down well but our quality was poor. We got into the final third not enough times – when you get that what you can’t do is keep giving it away, because you have got to run a long way back in transition.”