Gary Rowett has praise for Millwall staff’s set-piece efforts as they play a part in 3-1 win over Birmingham

Gary Rowett praised Millwall assistant manager Adam Barrett and first-team coach Paul Robinson for their work on set-pieces after the South London club’s 3-1 win over Birmingham City today.

The Lions’ opening two goals came from corners. Murray Wallace struck the Lions ahead and then Bradshaw headed Scott Malone’s corner emphatically past Neil Etheridge.

Although Troy Deeney gave Birmingham hope with an excellently-taken finish, George Evans smashed in an explosive third goal for Millwall.

Rowett said: “It’s probably the most complete performance over the 90-odd minutes. We’ve started well in a lot of the games this season but what we’ve not always managed to do is score that first goal. And we’ve not managed to score two goals in many games.

“Two set-pieces. That shows the importance of that in this division, scoring in that way just takes games away from teams and makes it very difficult. Ads [Adam Barrett] has worked incredibly hard with Robbo [Paul Robinson] and the staff on set pieces. We’ve been a little bit critical of the fact we haven’t scored enough this season or been dangerous enough.

“The first was a really well-worked short one which Ad had highlighted. He was a bit worried earlier that it might not go to plan – I’m not sure that was quite his terminology! We didn’t score with the first one with Evans but Murray Wallace finished it off. Bradshaw then scores the second one.

“Against a team like Birmingham that’s a difficult way to beat them because they are pretty strong at set-pieces and a physical side.

“First half we were excellent. And excellent value to be 2-0 up.”

Evans was one of two changes for Millwall as he took George Saville’s place in the centre of midfield.

“Sav took a few knocks up at Hull and I didn’t think he was at his best physically,” said Rowett. “I just thought it was a good time to give him a little breather.

“He’ll come good for us again and come back in [the side in the future]. It was a tough decision today because I had George Evans, who had been playing really, really well before he got injured. Maikel Kieftenbeld is a fantastic character and trained brilliantly -he’d have been absolutely desperate to start today. I could’ve gone either way but I felt as though Evo might just give us something different on the ball.

“Overall he was excellent and it’s a brilliant finish for the goal. We’ve had 10 shots on target, which is unheard of for us. It would’ve been criminal if we hadn’t score more than two goals today. I’m not just saying this for effect, but I’m a little bit disappointed we didn’t score more than three. It was a really good performance.”