“It’s time to get serious” – Millwall boss Gary Rowett angered by lack of consistency

Gary Rowett has told his Millwall players it is time to get “serious” as they look to arrest their Championship form slide.

The Lions lost 3-1 at Nottingham Forest yesterday. The South Londoners have won once since the end of October in the league.

And Rowett was left unhappy that they followed up a decent 1-1 draw at AFC Bournemouth in midweek with a lifeless display at The City Ground.

“I spoke to the players in there and said: ‘We’ve got to start getting serious’. Too many times we’re going out on the pitch and it almost looks like we’re waiting for something to happen. We’ve got to go and start grabbing games.

“We’ve got to start being more aggressive. You can’t go from an aggressive performance on Tuesday night to a tepid performance on Saturday. I’ve said that too many times in the last couple of months.

“The recent run is unacceptable.”

Sammy Ameobi produced two long-distance strikes to put Forest in the driving seat.

“A big part of the game plan was to make sure you keep Ameobi on his right foot and not allow him to go inside,” said Rowett.

“Twice we’ve allowed him to waltz inside us.

“It’s two good finishes – the first one gets a deflection. The second is an excellent finish. I’ve seen him do that many times – we can’t allow him to do that.

“The two goals are completely avoidable and a set-piece where we just don’t do our jobs. We score and suddenly you start to see us running and competing.”