Two senior players make playing return against Bristol City – as Millwall boss expects more to be back soon

BY ALEX GRACE

Gary Rowett was pleased to get two players back from injury and on to the pitch during Millwall’s 0-0 draw with Bristol City on Thursday night.

Both Benik Afobe and Callum Styles were brought on as second-half substitutes.

Afobe has not featured for the Lions since the 1-0 defeat at Huddersfield on October 29 having been sidelined with a knee injury.

“It’s been a while since Benik has got out there, but he showed some good touches and some good runs when he was on the pitch,” said Rowett.

Meanwhile, there was also a return for Barnsley loanee Styles, he had missed the last three games after he injured his calf during the 3-0 defeat at Sunderland on December 3rd.

“Stylesy drifts inside and has really nice composure on the ball,” said Rowett. “Shacks did the same when he came on.

“Hopefully by the next game we should have Scotty [Malone] back available as well, I don’t think Lenny [Ryan Leonard] is a million miles away but of course, he has missed quite a bit of football. That would leave only Benno [Mason Bennett] maybe another week or two away.

“We’re certainly looking a lot healthier but we’ve got to show a bit more quality than that. If you look at the week we’ve had and you would’ve said two clean sheets and four points, we probably would’ve been quite happy, but because we won the first game away at Watford, we expect a little bit more.

“That’s probably the disappointment this evening, we just didn’t have enough moments in the game to really put them under pressure, but that happens sometimes in this division.”