Bournemouth boss critical of his side’s defending for Millwall leveller

Bournemouth manager Jason Tindall was critical of his side’s defending for Millwall’s equaliser in Tuesday’s 1-1 draw at The Vitality Stadium.

Matt Smith levelled with 11 minutes remaining of the Championship contest to prevent the Cherries moving up to second in the standings.

Tindall said: “We knew we were going to face a Millwall side who got everybody behind the ball, made it very difficult for us and waited for those moments when we made a mistake so they could pounce on the counter-attack. Or they would wait for a set-play and be a threat with the big guys they’ve got in their side.

“The frustrating thing is we didn’t defend the free-kick well enough – which has ultimately cost us two points.

“Without a doubt [the goal was avoidable]. It wasn’t good enough from us in that situation – a mix-up over who should have gone up for the first contact. We’ve missed that first contact and not tracked the run for Smith’s goal.

“Fair play to Millwall. They have come here with a game plan and they have been good on the road. They make it difficult for the opposition, as they did at Norwich and Bristol City. And they made it difficult for us. They had a couple of good chances, without a doubt. We had a lot of possession.”

Lions boss Gary Rowett reckons the only thing holding the SE16 outfit back is converting more of their opportunities.

He said: “If you look at open play chances then last season we were near the bottom of the division – we had a lot of set-play chances and set-play goals. This season we’re about fifth for open play chances. We’re creating a lot.

“We’ve created a lot of chances in a lot of games – we just haven’t quite been clinical enough to win a lot of these draws.”