Positives and negatives for Rowett to take from Millwall game – as boss provides contract update

Gary Rowett was left with positives and negatives from Millwall’s 3-2 win over Coventry City on Saturday afternoon.

The Lions came from 2-0 down to secure their second win of the season but some of their defensive frailties were exposed. Kyle McFazdean pounced on some poor Lions defending inside the second minute before some more woeful defending allowed Matt Godden to double the advantage for the visitors.

Rowett admitted that it was a day of mixed emotions despite sealing the victory.

“Their first two goals came from mistakes for our defence, ” said Rowett. “That’s what the game is about, it’s the Championship. It’s a good header from Coops [Jake Cooper], we are always a threat from those types of positions [set-pieces]. The Championship is a difficult league, you can make lots of mistakes and what you have to do then is, if it’s not quality you have to force the errors. It was a great spectacle for the neutral but, for me, it was bloody awful – I can’t even remember the heat.

“I was disappointed with certain aspects and elated with other aspects. We are a team that will give everything. We aren’t going to be a team that will always dominate the game with beautiful possession but what we are is a team with great grit, and determination and I think certainly the fans were far happier with the last 70 minutes than they were the first 20. They got behind us, they kept behind us, and they were really important to the team.

“The aim is always to eradicate the mistakes. We work all week to be solid and defensively strong, to be better on the ball. We need to do is step up and do that a bit more regularly.”

The Lions’ boss was also able to give an update on Danny McNamara’s contract situation.

“We are making good progress on that, we are very hopeful we can get it agreed, Over the next two or three days, we are hopeful to have some good news, ” Rowett added.