Millwall boss Rowett: You have to judge our season on all 46 games – not just Coventry one

BY ALEX GRACE

Gary Rowett said his Millwall side can’t be “too disappointed” with their season despite a 6-1 hammering by Coventry City on the final day of the campaign.

The Lions were torn apart by Mark Robins’ side in the second half as they conceded six goals in a league game for the first time since December 2014.

“I thought if we’d defended with a modicum of decency – which we have done for most of the season – and actually shown a little bit of aggression, then we could’ve got something out of the game,” said Rowett.

“We go 1-0 down, we have some really good chances  but then concede a really, really poor goal from a set-piece to make it 2-0 which gives us a mountain to climb. I then felt like I had to change formation and we get back into it at 2-1, but then we just give another goal away at 3-1. At that point, it looked like we gave up a little bit and it’s a little bit embarrassing, disappointing.

“There’s another 45 games to view as well, so I can’t let that shape everything and the way I feel. For every compliment we had last week, for everything that one or two of the players wrongly said about Bristol City, football has a funny way of slapping you in the chops and I think Coventry would equally be saying that about us so that’s where you’ve got to look after yourself. You’ve got to just try to be respectful where you can.

“I’ve certainly had a word with the players on those comments – they shouldn’t be doing that about a team like Bristol City in my opinion.”

Despite defeat the Lions did record a second successive top half finish in the second tier for the first time since 2005.

“We’ve had two solid top-half finishes to finish eighth and 11th in a very, very difficult division,” said Rowett. “I don’t think we can be too disappointed with that. The period of games in the middle of the season where we had some key injuries and won one in 12, I think, made a top-six challenge quite difficult at the end and it just fizzled out. I have to compartmentalise 45 games and not just today’s game. Next year, I know we’ll be stronger, I know what targets we’re after, I know what we want to do and I know we’ll be a lot stronger next year.”

Millwall have a number of players out of contract in the summer and the Lions chief admits there are areas that his side will need to improve ahead of the 2020-21 campaign but the amount of players coming in will depend on the amount that leave.

“This was always a year where we had quite a few players out of contract so we were always able to move the squad in a slightly different way,” he said. “I’ve asked the club to push forward in areas, in things like the training ground to help us be better. We have to match that ambition as the club are trying to do that. We’ll be a stronger team next year, there are clearly areas where we need to improve. There’s not really just one area – people talk about goals which is true, but you have to strengthen a team in every department all the time.

“We’ve got a few contract offers out to players at the moment so if they decide not to take them, there could be a lot more change. Who knows who will come in for what players – though I’d imagine today’s performance, not many. I wouldn’t buy any of ours on the basis of that 90 minutes.

“I think it’ll be medium [number of players in] – it might. End up being five or six if one or two move on but we’ll see. It never gets done as quickly as you’d like it to get done, so there’s a lot of hard work ahead. There’s also a lot of hard work that’s gone in so far so we know what we’ve got to do regardless of today’s result.”