Millwall boss Gary Rowett gives his verdict on performance at Gillingham + ‘brilliant’ travelling fans

BY ALEX GRACE

Gary Rowett was pleased with Millwall’s effort against Gillingham tonight. The Lions came from a goal down against Steve Evans’ side with Jake Cooper heading home from a corner in the final five minutes.

“I thought it was a really realistic game,” said Rowett. “The first thing you see when you come out and see fans are there, our fans were in full voice which was wonderful to hear, it’s been a while.

“It was the type of game against Steve’s sides, everyone he manages they are very strong playing forward, they landed on second balls. They played some good stuff as well and the fans got behind them and I’m sure that helped them early on.

“There wasn’t much in the game in the first half. I just wanted us to show a little bit more composure and you saw the difference in the second half when we passed the ball and opened the game up a bit better. It was a really good test physically, as well as technically.

“We looked a lot better second half. We passed the ball better and had it not been for three or four decent saves from their keeper we might have scored a bit earlier, but we got the goal in the end.”

The Lions got their equaliser from a corner, another set-piece goal, something that as been a feature of Millwall’s pre-season.

“It’s another set piece, once again we’ve done a lot of things well and some things not so well which gives us stuff to work on in the coming weeks,” said Rowett.

The Millwall boss was full of praise for the 700 travelling supporters.

“Brilliant,” said Rowett. “Listen, anyone that’s involved in football does it for the fans. It’s all about the fans. We want to play in front of an atmosphere – that’s why we do it. Otherwise you turn up on a Saturday and play football for the love of it.

“It was nice to feel it and see people getting excited and that’s a massive tick for us. I really appreciate them coming down, the ones that travelled. There was a lot more of them in the stadium, but they sat in a lot of the Gillingham seats.”