Millwall boss reveals why he took midfielder decision against Fulham

Millwall manager Gary Rowett has revealed it was never his plan to give Ryan Leonard a 20-minute runout in Tuesday’s 1-1 friendly draw with Fulham.

The midfielder had not played a first-team match since February after sustaining ankle damage.

But the Lions were short on options for the visit of the west London club to their Calmont Road training base.

“We had a couple of players unavailable at the last minute and Ryan had been training all week with us,” said Rowett. “Rather than do a training session with the two or three players left, we might as well chuck Lenny in for 20 minutes of the game and then do a little bit afterwards.

“We knew his match tempo would be well short and his sharpness, but it was good to see him out there.

“It was typical Lenny – he made a lung-bursting run back in the 89th minute.

“We’ll get him some more minutes in some other games. We’re trying to arrange a game for Saturday and hopefully we’ll have a chance that he is pushing for a place at the start of the season.”