Millwall manager gives his verdict on Championship opener against Stoke City

Millwall manager Gary Rowett is putting no special emphasis on their Championship opener against his former club Stoke City.

The Lions start the 2020-21 league season with a home game on September 12.

Rowett used to boss the Potteries outfit. He was sacked by them in January 2019.

The corresponding fixture was his first after taking the Millwall job. A Ben Thompson goal and Jed Wallace’s penalty secured a 2-0 victory.

Stoke announced at the weekend that they had appointed Millwall’s Alex Aldridge as their new head of recruitment.

Rowett said: “Someone said: ‘Ooh you’ve got Stoke on the opening day’. So what? It’s out first home game and we want to win it – but it doesn’t matter who we’re playing, it doesn’t make any difference.

“That’s the same for most of the fixtures. All I do is look where we are on Boxing Day – and I can’t believe we’re at Bournemouth after playing Cardiff away last year. Someone doesn’t like us. It doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense.

“We had a really tough run of games last season and looked like we might struggle and we did really well in them. I remember being in a great position with about five games to go and facing teams below us, and we started really badly within that.

“I genuinely don’t believe it makes any difference. You have to beat the best teams and beat the poorer teams – if there is such a thing in the Championship – if you want to finish somewhere up near the top of the table.”