‘Patient and diligent’ – Gary Rowett hails Millwall players for carrying out gameplan in win at Plymouth

Millwall boss Gary Rowett was full of praise for his players after they executed the perfect game plan to beat Plymouth Argyle 2-0 on the road.

The Lions picked up their first away win of the season in the Championship courtesy of second-half goals from Zian Flemming and George Saville, the latter netting deep into additional time.

Millwall needed a response after slumping to a dismal 3-0 defeat against Swansea City at The Den over the weekend and faced a tall order against Plymouth, who had one of the best home records in the division prior to kick-off.

Millwall weathered an early storm against a Plymouth side who plundered six goals past Norwich City last month but drastically improved after the break. 

And Rowett was delighted with how his players executed the game plan to bag all three points after a tough afternoon at the office on Saturday.

Speaking after the match, the Lions boss said: “We needed to respond from our previous game, which we weren’t happy about, but this is what the Championship is made of – you’ve got to move on very quickly and try and find a way to win the next game.

“I knew Plymouth away would be a tough game. We’ve seen a lot of their games at home and they’ve got a lot of quality, a lot of energy and a lot of confidence.

“Our game plan, really, was to sit a little bit deeper and entice them forward to see if they could break us down – that would open some spaces for us on the transition. We’ve been good at that. 

“When we played against Middlesbrough on the first day of the season, we did the same thing – we were patient, we waited and we were diligent. 

“You have to ride a little bit of those defensive moments, but you’re waiting for that moment of brilliance. Duncan Watmore showed it with a lovely little flicked pass and Zian splits the defence with his run and lifts it over the keeper. It’s a really good quality finish.

“Then it’s a case of can we ride the storm? They’re a good side – they will win a lot of games here.

“But I don’t think they had too many really good chances. There’s a lot of balls in the box that you have to defend. We were diligent and we did enough to stop them from breaking us down.

“I felt as if the game was end-to-end then it would suit them here, whereas if we could just sit a little bit deeper [maybe] they wouldn’t be able to break us down quite so easily. I felt that our forwards maybe would just have the beating of their defenders if we got into those little transitional spaces.

“We went to a 5-2-3 because I felt Zian and Duncan Watmore could get into those little positions and cause them problems. As soon as they came out, I felt as though that little bit of movement in behind would help us. That was a definite plan for us and it worked really, really well. The players carried that out fantastically.”

After Flemming had broken the deadlock in style after being teed up by the relentless Duncan Watmore, Saville sealed the points with a sweet curling finish in the 97th minute after coming off the bench.

And Rowett was hopeful that moment would soften the mammoth trip back to the capital for the 606 travelling Millwall fans, who he commended after the match.

He added: “It’s always nice to get that second one as the away side, because you know the game is over then. It’s a lovely finish – he just curled it away from the keeper. That was a big moment when it nestled in the back of the net.

“It was a big moment for our travelling fans because plenty of them came down and it’s a bloody long way to go. It’s a long way to come for nothing, so hopefully that makes them feel a little bit better going home.”