Millwall boss on difficult decision to leave Jed Wallace out – and reveals half-time debate over attacker

Gary Rowett has revealed that he was very close to bringing Jed Wallace on at half-time in Millwall’s 4-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday.

The Lions talisman ended up having a break as he was not required with the SE16 outfit netting three times in the second period.

Wallace, 26, is the club’s top scorer with six goals this season and had started all of their previous Championship matches.

“I think it’s probably the first time I’ve left him out of a league game apart from Huddersfield at the end of last season,” said Millwall boss Rowett. “You could argue that possibly doesn’t count, because it didn’t really mean too much.

“It’s a difficult thing to do with Jed. You always feel you are a better side with Jed on the teamsheet, just because he has been so influential. He has scored 16 goals in the last season and a half and we’ve lacked goals. You certainly don’t want to pick a team that doesn’t have goals in it.

“But it comes to a point where if a player keeps having to churn out performances, and in Jed’s case he is so explosive, it becomes hard.

“We very nearly put him on at half-time. We had a debate – myself, Joe [Carnall] and Adam [Barrett] – about who to replace Maikel [Kieftenbeld] with. We felt Jed might give us a little bit more of a spark behind the front two. We thought the game would open up a little bit for Sheffield Wednesday in terms of attacking midfield areas and landing on things.

“But Thommo was superb second half, so I’m glad we didn’t make that decision. He was a real catalyst to us getting back on top.”