Millwall boss Gary Rowett: We took the game to Nottingham Forest

BY RICHARD CAWLEY

Millwall manager Gary Rowett was full of praise for his side as they muscled their way firmly back into the Championship play-off picture after a superb victory at Nottingham Forest.

Matt Smith’s first-half hat-trick – his first league treble of his career – saw the Lions add fresh impetus to their top-six prospects.

And Rowett was proud of his team’s display at the City Ground.

He said: “After the last couple of performances where maybe we haven’t quite done enough to win the game, I spoke to the players about it – if we want any sort of opportunity of pushing for the top six then we’ve got to go and grasp the game and be a little braver than we have been. And we were.

“It was a slightly different game plan. We could easily have gone 5-2-3, which has worked so well for us away from home, but we just sensed some opportunities tonight – certainly to play big Matt. He has scored goals recently and I felt that a targetman would cause Forest a problem, because it has in open play and also from set pieces.

“We had Mason Bennett drifting to the side where Cash and Lolley are so attacking but they leave a bit of space so that was something we worked on.

“For the first 45 minutes it worked really, really well. We scored some excellent goals. The second 45 minutes we had to be really resolute. But we’ve limited Forest to lots of long-range shots – not too many clear-cut chances. There were two sides to our game and we played them both really well.

“Matt gets a little bit of a break for the second one and he then scores the next one, which makes it a hat-trick.

“Defensively we were absolutely superb, like we have been all season. It’s another clean sheet – we’ve conceded the fewest goals in the division since we’ve come in.

“It was a really, really concentrated performance and a thoroughly, thoroughly deserved win.

“When we went 2-0 up there was a bit of excitement on our bench but I said: ‘We’ve been here before, when we were 2-0 up against Leeds and we lost 3-2’. At that point you still need to show the composure.

“All the defenders have been outstanding. Hutch has been brilliant for a while and Coops was more dominant as well. I gave him a little flea in his ear the last game at half-time as I felt he should have dominated Diedhiou a little more in the first half – he did second half. Today he was very, very strong.

“The pleasing thing for me is that we took the game to Forest. It would have been easy for us to sit in and just try and hold on for a draw but we’re not trying to do that away from home – we’re trying to win games.

“It’s a performance to add to Bristol City, Derby, Preston – we’ve beaten some very good sides away from home from a position where we couldn’t win a game away from home. I’m very proud of the players today.

“People know we’re a good side and we deserve to be where we are. The good thing for us is we’ve got no pressure at all – we can go and play fearlessly every game.”