Millwall boss Rowett makes interesting comments on Stoke loanee Benik Afobe

Benikl Afobe will sit out Millwall’s match at Stoke City on Saturday – and manager Gary Rowett reckons that gave the striker “extra motivation” in the 2-0 win over Huddersfield Town on Wednesday night.

The 29-year-old is ineligible this weekend as part of the terms of his loan agreement.

Afobe scored both goals in midweek and could easily have walked away with the matchball – hitting the right post, crossbar and being denied on multiple occasions by Terriers keeper Lee Nicholls.

Asked about the fact the forward cannot feature this weekend, as the Lions seek to extend their unbeaten run to nine Championship matches, Rowett said: “I think that probably gave him a little bit of extra motivation to put it all out there last night, knowing that he almost gets a nice breather.

“He probably doesn’t want that breather, what striker would after scoring two goals and creating lots of other chances? The reality is he won’t be available.

“The challenge of yet another player missing doesn’t really faze us because it seems the more players we’ve had missing the more results we get. Maybe that galvanises the players who are available.

“Seeing somebody coming back will hopefully give us a boost, once we get through to these last eight games.

“I watched the game back last night when I got in, because I’m a bit of a saddo. I’ll be honest, we played better than I actually thought on the night. We controlled large parts of the game and looked really comfortable aside from the first 10 minutes – even then they were little counter-attacks they kept having against us because we had bits of possession.

“It depends how you gauge the game. Some people gauge the game on possession and making lots of nice passes. Some people gauge it on the result at the end and how many chances you get – for my sins I’m one of the latter.

“And in terms of chances it was pretty clear that we were the aggressors in attack and created by far the best chances.”