MillwallSport

Millwall boss admits his side lacked the quality to deserve more than a draw against Wigan Athletic

Gary Rowett felt his Millwall side lacked enough quality in the final third as they drew 1-1 with Wigan Athletic today.

The Latics took a 33rd-minute lead at The Den as Will Keane was the lucky recipient of a short sequence of penalty box pinball, leaving him to slot into an unguarded net.

But the South Londoners were back on level terms on 40 minutes through Zian Flemming. The Dutchman finished sweetly after Tom Bradshaw  chested down Danny McNamara’s cross.

But Millwall were unable to build on that with keeper Jamie Jones pushing away a Flemming free-kick in the second period while Billy Mitchell could only strike an attempt straight at the Wigan stopper soon after that.

Andreas Voglsammer, yet to score since his summer move from Union Berlin, had headed an excellent Mason Bennett cross over the bar shortly before Flemming bagged his ninth goal of the campaign.

Zian Flemming celebrates his ninth goal of the season

“It was a lovely move and a lovely goal but the frustration was it was the main bit of quality in the game,” said Rowett, who has seen his Lions take one point from a possible six since resuming after the break for the World Cup.

“If you’re going to open a game up like that one and win it then you need to show a little bit more.

“It ended up out with Danny, lovely little clip into Bradders and because he has hit it early and clean, it’s not really allowed the goalkeeper to move.

“It’s the quality that Zian has got and the rest of the players have got as well. Playing against Wigan – it’s another new manager we’ve faced – you know they are going to have a little bit of a lift and probably play to a level higher than they maybe have been in the previous games. But you have to accept that and do a little bit more to win the game.

“We conceded a really poor goal. They have a shot, Longy dives and it gets deflected straight back to their lad, who just prods it home. We don’t seem to get too many of those ourselves. Then we responded quite well after that. Benno started to take on the full-back and caused him real problems. Vogey really should score.

“Then we end up equalising and you think let’s put our foot on the gas a little bit and start to attack a little more. They had moments in the game where they kept the ball and stopped us from building any momentum. It was just down to quality today. We didn’t show that extra bit of quality to win the game.

“I said to the players afterwards: ‘We got a point – that’s all we deserved. It’s no disgrace but we have got to do a little bit more to win at home, like we have done so many times this season’.”

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