Millwall boss answers question about the decision to wait until late to make substitute changes

Gary Rowett has explained his thinking behind not making any Millwall changes until the closing stages in yesterday’s 1-0 win over Reading.

Andreas Voglsammer’s first-half penalty earned maximum points for the Lions, who moved back into the Championship play-off places.

Rowett only used two of his substitutes – both in the 78th minute – as Oliver Burke and Shaun Hutchinson replaced Voglsammer and George Honeyman.

The introduction of Hutchinson saw Millwall switch to a back five.

Asked if he had thought about freshening things up before he did make subs, Rowett replied: “No, not really. At one point it looked like Sav had picked up a bit of a stiff back and I thought about putting Shacks in there to add a little bit of energy.

“Burkey and Dunc are the ones you think of that give you a little bit of pace and energy out wide but, deep down, if you watched the game for about a 10 or 15-minute spell in the second half they kept switching the ball to their wing-backs and putting the ball in the box.

“That’s the point. It always felt like a game where we would switch to wing-backs and switch to a back three.

“I didn’t want to do that too early because I think, with the temptation after Luton, you know that if you do it and concede an equaliser, people then attribute the equaliser to a negative substitution. I don’t think it’s got anything to do with that, they played the whole game like that.

“You have to get a feel for games. Sometimes you’ll get it right, sometimes you’ll get it wrong. Sometimes you might get it right but someone makes a mistake so you end up losing the scoreline – it’s not always the formation.

“At that stage they are a big side putting a lot of physical pressure on us. I felt Hutchy and Burkey – for different reasons – would give us the right ingredients at that point.”