‘He felt a pop’ – Millwall boss Gary Rowett on Shaun Hutchinson’s injury setback

ALEX GRACE

Gary Rowett could not confirm the extent of Shaun Hutchinson’s injury after Millwall’s 2-0 win over Cardiff City at The Den today.

The Lions skipper was forced off just two minutes into the second half.

“He felt a pop in his groin,” said Rowett. “I don’t know at this point what it is, but that’s what he felt, he tried to carry on, but he couldn’t. I’m not sure [how bad it is].”

Hutchinson’s replacement Charlie Cresswell opened the scoring for the Lions when he headed in fellow substitute Scott Malone’s corner for his third goal of the season.

Asked about what impact the substitutes had in the game – with Benik Afobe adding a second in the 90th minute – Rowett said:  “I felt they maintained the energy in the game. That was important to us. When you are the away team like we saw at Burnley, you get to around 60 minutes, and if you are still in the game, you get to build that confidence and sometimes the home team just start to fatigue, and that’s where changes can impact it. At that point, we felt we just needed a bit of freshness to keep the momentum going and keep us moving forward.”

Rowett changed both wing-backs from the 2-0 defeat at Burnley on Tuesday. Barnsley loanee Callum Styles started at left wing-back while Jamie Shackleton replaced Danny McNamara on the right.

“The changes worked really well today,” said the Millwall manager. “It’s very difficult for a player to start every game because we have good options. What’s nice is that they’ve come off. We scored one goal from a substitute last season. This season, we’ve got three. It just shows how good it is to have those options.”

It was a third win out of four home games for Milwall, who have been so strong on their own patch for the whole of 2022.

‘Our home form has been good,” said Rowett. “We’ve had really tough away games, playing the top three away from home. I don’t think many teams will get much out of those games. What we have to do now is use that confidence and see if we can repeat something like that performance.

“It’s important we keep winning at home. Winning at home makes away performances not as crucial. Losing at home to Reading meant then going to Burnley feeling like there’s a bit more pressure on the game. It settles us down a bit to hopefully kick on.”