Millwall manager defends striker after late miss and praises his side’s performance at Hillsborough
Millwall boss Gary Rowett defended Jon Dadi-Bodvarsson after the striker missed a golden opportunity to win today’s match at Sheffield Wednesday
The Lions were forced to settle for a point in South Yorkshire as neither side managed to find a breakthrough.
“It’s very easy to look at what he could have done and what he couldn’t have done,” said Rowett. “At that point you want your striker to show that composure – that’s the difference in the game.
“When a player tries to lob the keeper and it goes wide, then of course you feel like it’s the wrong option. But if he’d lobbed him and it had gone in it would have been the right option.”
The Millwall boss did have praise for the Icelandic striker, who has found goals tough to come by since his move from Reading in the summer.
“He was really bright when he came on. He’s made a couple of runs to get into those positions. So, I’m happy he’s getting into those goalscoring positions where in a game like this you need to be clinical in that one moment to take the points.”
Millwall do not play until next Sunday when they host league leaders West Brom.
“We’ve got a little breather, a few days off. We need to recharge the batteries to get back to the performances of the first 10 or 11 games after we came in.”
Rowett didn’t feel that either side did enough to win the game.
“It was a fair reflection, if you look at the game maybe we had a tiny bit more control at times, they got into more threatening positions than us without that control.”
Millwall had the best chance of the first half but Shane Ferguson was unable to play Jed Wallace in. If he had done, he would have been one on one with Cameron Dawson.
“I don’t think either side had many chances. [Adam] Reach first half gets a header that went just wide, Fergie [Shane Ferguson] just needs to put Jed [Wallace] in first half and he’s one-on-one with the keeper.”
The Lions chief also highlighted the tough period that his side have had with fixture congestion.
“We’ve had a tough period, we had Sheffield United in the FA Cup which was really energy-sapping because they ran with real intent.
“We go away to Leeds in a very physically demanding game and two days later we’ve got to come back up here. Hillsborough’s a hard place to come.
“I’m quite pleased with a clean sheet. We had to work really hard for it.”
PICTURES BY BRIAN TONKS