Millwall boss disappointed with defensive display at Barnsley – but claims Tykes’ first goal was clearly offside
BY ALEX GRACE
Gary Rowett was left disappointed by Millwall’s defending after they lost 2-1 at Barnsley – but also felt the home side’s opener was clearly offside.
“It was a very, very close game,” said Rowett. “A very tight game.
“We were the better side in the first half, they were probably the better side in the second half. We start poorly two moments in the game undo us. It’s two set-pieces, one second phase and for both goals we don’t win the first ball. And then we don’t react to the second ball.”
There were question marks over Barnsley’s first goal as Cauley Woodrow looked to have been offside when he gave the hosts the lead after just two minutes.
“The first goal is offside,” said Rowett. I’m not going to massively complain about it but it’s clear offside.
“I think the linesman should certainly be able to see that from his position. I’ve seen the replay several times. But we should defend better, we should defend it better. After the goal we settled well. It’s an interesting game because the last time we played Barnsley we had to work out how to stop them playing out from the back and all their rotations or movement. What they’ve done now is they’ve found an effective way – but it’s a really, really direct way.
“They’re probably the most direct side I’ve seen in the Championship. They are good at it and they’re very organised and they just keep putting balls down your throat, and they defend very very high. That’s when you need to play with composure and first half when we did play with composure over the top of their backline and broke the line with good runs, we got into dangerous positions – like for the goal. We didn’t do it often enough in the second half.
“We had so many opportunities just to put a ball with a little bit of height into a good area for someone to run to. Our clearances went to their defenders, who just handed it back down our throat. All of our opportunities to play forward weren’t good enough and they got away with that high line defensively and that was a disappointment, there was nothing in the game.”
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