Millwall boss gives his verdict on whether Bournemouth goal should have been disallowed

Millwall boss Gary Rowett had no problem with Bournemouth’s opening goal, despite complaints over a push on Mason Bennett.

Dominic Solanke stabbed home on the streak of half time to nudge the Cherries ahead at The Den. Bennett was seemingly bundled over in the box in the build-up to the goal, leaving the Den crowd furious.

But Rowett brushed aside any gripes over Solanke’s goal – or a potential red card for Gavin Kilkenny, who seemed to go down easily in the box minutes after being booked.

“We have a chance to clear it on the edge of our box and we get caught and they put the ball in the box,” said the Lions boss.”Mase just switches off a little bit. Maybe some days he might get a foul for that, but I’m not so sure – I think it’s a 50/50 challenge.  I certainly wouldn’t complain.”

“Solanke gets a little bit of the rub of the green when he hits it against Mase and it drops down to him. But to go in at half time at 1-0 down I felt was incredibly unfair and disappointing.”

Millwall players surrounded the referee following Kilkenny’s tumble in the box but Rowett dismissed the idea of a red card.

“No, I think it was one where he anticipated the contact in the penalty box and fell down,” he added.”It wasn’t really a dive; it depends how you interpret it. I didn’t think it was a red card.

“It was a difficult game; it was fast paced.

“I know there were quite a few times late on where they’re shouting for offside and you’re thinking ‘wow, if you can see offside from 60 yards back on the halfway line, that’s incredible’. And I think that’s because we put them under pressure. We made them change shape to a five with Lerma at right-centre-back, we put them under the cosh in the second half and it was a really, really tough game for them.

“I don’t think the referee had an awful lot of impact in that particularly. Listen, it’s a Championship game; they’re all hard to referee because they’re all so quick and so competitive.”