‘A good point’ – Millwall boss Rowett on his team’s performance and result at Middlesbrough

BY ALEX GRACE

Gary Rowett felt his side claimed a positive point away from The Riverside as Millwall held Middlesbrough to a 1-1 draw. Sol Bamba’s own goal cancelled out Matt Crooks’ opener.

Asked if it was a good point for his side, Rowett told the club’s website “Yeah I think so. It’s going to be a tough place to come, you could see the atmosphere was good and Bart’s had to make saves. But they are saves I would expect him to make.

“We moved the ball quite well in the first half but then we just started to overplay. They looked a danger on the counter early on, we left ourselves open in the wide positions and our shape in the way we passed the ball from a defensive point of view was not great.

“We concede the goal. I couldn’t say they didn’t deserve something, but it’s a really poor goal to concede. Dan gets beat a little bit too easily and we just leave Matt Crooks all alone at the back post with two players marking no one. What we have done recently is given away really soft goals which is unlike us.

“We then reacted really well. It’s a good goal on our behalf, good play from Mason and Benik, he gets a bit of luck with it going in off the defender. They perhaps feel there is a red card incident with Scott Malone on Watmore but Scotty felt he won the ball fairly.

“I had a go at the players at half time. It’s another one of our first-half performances where we can’t play how we want to in the first half of games and honestly the game plan we talked about was positive, tasking the game to them, starting on the front foot, a little bit more freedom.

“Second half I would say was a really good response from an aspect of control from our perspective – away from home at a tough place and a team that will only get better and better under Chris. The performance was enough to get us at least a draw.”