Millwall boss reveals his biggest disappointment from 1-0 defeat to Huddersfield Town

Millwall manager Gary Rowett felt his side paid the price for “switching off” in today’s 1-0 defeat to Huddersfield Town.

The Lions go into the international break in sixth place in the Championship but saw their attempt to make it three wins on the spin end in failure as substitute Danny Ward’s second-half goal sealed all three points for Neil Warnock’s side.

“If I had to predict what could’ve been the game, having watched their last three or four, then it’s what I would’ve predicted. They got lots and lots of men behind the ball and left (Martyn) Waghorn up front on his own.

“They didn’t really cause us any attacking problems apart from the one moment where we switch off.

“That’s the disappointment.

“We’ve kept the ball quite well and it’s impossible to play forward quickly and early every time when they have got 10 men behind it. You’ve got to be patient and try to open them up with a little bit of good play.

“It always comes down to the final third. It’s the area where someone has got to come up with a bit of magic or quality. We’ve had numerous chances, 70 per cent of the ball and 18 or 19 shots. They’ve had four shots.

“The goal against was probably my biggest frustration. It’s a ball in the box and the lad is six yards out and unmarked. It’s a switch off when you have so much of the ball, sometimes you can be in that possession mode and not think about the other side.

“It is what it is. You can argue we did the same at Stoke and that we got away with it a little bit against Swansea.

“Unfortunately you have to accept we didn’t do enough to go and get the first goal which, as you know, is always going to open the game up massively.”

Huddersfield completed just 81 passes in the match, compared to Millwall’s 374.

Rowett said: “Neil has got a team fighting for their lives. Norwich would’ve thought they would turn them over easily, Norwich didn’t and nearly ended up losing the game at the end.

“We’ve tried to do the same – dominated the game and had lots and lots of the ball – and should’ve taken one of our chances. That’s what happens when you don’t.

“Regardless of how many passes we’ve made or they have made, it shows how the game was, but ultimately you have got to make sure it ends up 0-0 if you can’t find that winner.

“At that point I’d probably have accepted that (a draw) because it was a different type of game and a different type of challenge. Not one we will potentially have very often here at The Den.”