‘Tremendous job’ – Millwall boss has praise for Reading boss Paul Ince ahead of Saturday’s Championship meeting

Millwall manager Gary Rowett has praised the job that Paul Ince has done at Reading – adding the former Manchester United midfielder has not been working in “easy circumstances”.

The Royals could be set for a points deduction if the EFL rule they have not complied with their profit and sustainability rules.

Millwall head to Reading this weekend looking to boost their Championship play-off hopes.

The Royals are 15th in the table and were defeated 1-0 on home turf by Sheffield United on Tuesday.

“Paul has done a tremendous job there – it’s not been easy circumstances,” Rowett told the South London Press. “He has had quite a lot of key players either leave or not perform at the same level this year or not be part of the group as often.

“To get them in the position they were (earlier in the season), they have just dropped away a little bit but that is no disgrace at all.

“He has done a really, really good job on limited resources. I heard Paul speaking about that they had a tough run of games, a lot of teams in and around the top six. You relish those games, you use them as a little bit of a benchmark moving forward. They’ll want to win a few of those games to give them a little kick on for the rest of the season.

“We lost to them at home earlier this season, we know exactly what they can do. They are a strong side, physically capable of sitting in and defending. Andy Carroll is an obvious aerial threat. I signed Tom Ince on a number of occasions and I know that he has got bags of top end Championship quality.

“We’ve got to bounce back from a disappointing result (a 3-2 defeat at home to Norwich last weekend) rather than a disappointing performance. At this stage of the season you have got to move on very, very quickly and bounce back very quickly. It is that time when the games run out. It is not going to be long until we are down to single figures and every game counts.”