Millwall boss gives his verdict as he sees half-time lead slip as Lions leave Bristol pointless
BY ALEX GRACE
Gary Rowett was left disappointed as his Millwall side let a 2-1 half-time lead slip as they fell to a 3-2 defeat at Bristol City.
Tom Bradshaw and Benik Afobe had put the Lions’ 2-1 up after Andreas Weimann’s early opener.
Weimann struck twice more to complete his hat-trick and ensure the South Londoners were defeated in their opening game of 2022.
“Disappointing, partially as the first 45 minutes was the best we’ve played,” said Rowett.
“We played really, really well. We played very assuredly as a team out of possession. We looked really good in possession, we passed the ball well when we needed to pass the ball. We limited them to having to press balls forward with a lack of quality.
“We concede a really poor goal, Bart just scuffs his clearance and they take advantage of it. It’s a mistake from us and a disappointing way to start the game because at that point you don’t want to give the home team any sort of advantage when the game is fairly even but we responded really well.”
Tom Bradshaw extended his goalscoring run to five goals in five games as he headed home Murray Wallace’s cross for the equaliser.
“Great goal from us, great cross from Muzza,” said Rowett. “Bradders with the header continues that great scoring run which is a huge positive. Then we go and get a penalty. Is it a red card? Because the rule is if you make a genuine attempt to get the ball you can’t have double jeopardy but when you watch it back the lad is nowhere near the ball, he’s about two seconds late. He’s scythed Benik down, so I’ve got the chance to say it’s a cynical challenge. If it’s a poorly-timed challenge, then it’s a horrendously poorly-timed tackle. They are things we can’t control, but we might have had an extra little bit of an advantage there.
“We scored the penalty and went 2-1 up, we looked controlled. We looked really good and then it was always a case of can we maintain that level of performance? Could we contain the energy? It was a difficult game again with a patched up squad. Mason Bennett went down ill last night which again stretched us.
“We’ve got a few young lads on the bench. It was very difficult in a game like that to think ‘let’s throw one of them on to help us’. Sheyi just ran out of energy so I put Evans on just to give us a bit of a foothold in the game and I felt it worked for a little bit.”
That second half intensity became a chore though for Rowett’s side. Changes made by Bristol City boss Nigel Pearson caused the Lions problems as the team begun to tire.
“We conceded two really poor goals,” said Rowett. “Bristol City played much better second half. They played with a lot more attacking quality in the second half but the two goals were very, very poor goals.
“The first one is a cross from the left-hand side, I’d expect our back three to deal with that. Wiemann runs off Evans to score the goal. Incredibly poor and frustrating goal to concede. The third goal Semyno runs off Hutchy he crosses it, we make a clearance off the line and it falls to them and they score to make it 3-2.”