‘They are not tactical issues’ – Millwall boss Rowett gives his verdict on Blackburn Rovers loss

Gary Rowett has given his verdict on Millwall’s 2-1 defeat at Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.

The Lions manager did not do post-match at Ewood Park, heading back to the capital for Sunday’s London Marathon which he ran for the Lions Food Hub.

Millwall are still winless on the road this season – their last away victory was at the start of March.

Tyrhys Dolan profited from a defensive mix-up between George Long and Charlie Cresswell to put Rovers into a 57th minute lead. Then Ben Brereton Diaz quickly added a second at the back post after Lions striker Benik Afobe could only flick on a corner instead of clearing.

Jake Cooper did head home for the Lions but they have the joint second-worst away record this season with just one point- with only Huddersfield (0) below them.

“For an away performance, if you look up until the first goal, we were pretty much defensively sound and relatively in control off the ball,” Rowett told the South London Press.

“We had three really good moments. One in the first half, where if Benik [Afobe] doesn’t make his run across the defender and just maybe runs straight – Stylesy has a chance to put him in – we don’t quite get that one right. But it’s an opportunity for a one-v-one with the keeper.

“Zian [Flemming] had an opportunity to pass to Benik or Billy [Mitchell] early on and just had to float the ball a little bit more than he’d have liked.

“We had two or three really good positions that. In away games you want to be solid and go and nick that first goal, then the game opens up.

“Up until that point we weren’t displeased. Blackburn are quite a good side at home.

“We give away the first goal. You look and Longy is just about to drop on it. Cressy is there and Shacks is there, behind Cressy, and then there is not really a Blackburn player in a particularly dangerous area. We make a decision, like you have to do in football, and unfortunately it was the wrong decision and we give away a goal.

“What you don’t want to do then is concede the next one. And, as we have done quite a few times, we then didn’t defend the set-piece well. We have an opportunity to head it away at the near post and we don’t get that right – then we lose our marker at the back post.

“Billy is two yards behind him with a clear header. It’s a difficult one there, because if you’re Benik you don’t want to leave it – you want to try and deal with it. You’ve either got to deal with it properly or Billy has got to give him a shout to then head it away. You see that 100 times in different divisions and the ball just gets cleared very simply.

“These are the frustrating bits. For both the goals if you pause them just before the moment and said to someone: ‘Is this a goal’. You’d go: ‘No. It’s going straight on his head and it’s going straight to the keeper’. We keep shooting ourselves in the foot.

“You are back to the same things that if we don’t take that individual accountability to stop these mistakes happening then you’re not going to win games of football.

“I’ll be really honest – they are not tactical issues and they are not anything other than poor moments where we’re not dealing with it. We need to eradicate them very, very quickly.

“It’s frustrating. Then we’ve had enough chances to go and score the equaliser.

“It’s the same sort of story away from home and what we can’t do is have such good home form and such poor away form. For me it is a mentality and a desire to go and do what you can to win a game away from home. We need to find that very, very quickly – otherwise our season is going to fizzle into a season where we were all hopeful and it’s not going to be what we want it to be. It’s as simple as that.”