Tyler Burey earns praise for impact as Millwall boss admits Jed Wallace speculation has affected other players

BY ALEX GRACE

Millwall manager Gary Rowett was pleased with the cameo appearance from Tyler Burey at Blackpool on Saturday afternoon.

The former AFC Wimbledon youngster came on as a 59th minute substitute as a replacement for George Evans. He came close to levelling the scores but saw his effort kept out by Pools keeper Dan Grimshaw.

“He’s a good young player, ” said Rowett “He went out to Hartlepool on loan and did really, really well. Then he pulled his hamstring. He went back there for the final two games or so and we decided to bring him back, mainly because of Jed’s situation at the moment.

“Within that it gives that other bit of pace on the other side of the pitch. He was really impressive when he came on, we just needed to get the ball to him a bit more. That was the bit that disappointed me in the second half. We didn’t play with enough quality or spark. When I saw Bowler getting the ball I thought something was going to happen. When we got the ball it just fizzled out too easily.”

Jed Wallace once again missed out through injury with speculation around his future still circling heading into the final stages of the transfer window.

“It’s difficult when you get into that situation when there is an awful lot of press speculation,” said Rowett. “It’s not easy – other players will read that. It’s been tough for Jed at times.

“He’s injured at the moment and you’ve got all that uncertainty around it and it does affect other players. It shouldn’t. You have to be stronger than that, to be better than that. but it has affected some player.

“But we have to step up and at the end of next week the group we have here will be the group we will need to move forward with and move forward with better results. We will be better in the second half of the season but we have to show a bit more fight to be better.”

The Lions are in need of attacking reinforcements with injuries to the likes of Tom Bradshaw and Sheyi Ojo. Rowett is confident of adding to the squad.

“We are working really hard to get another player in and then depending on our outs will depend on other ins. We are looking to bring another forward player into the building. We need that little bit of a spark that we seem to be lacking at the moment.

“It’s been really difficult. You get the likes of Tom Bradshaw into a really good run of form and he gets injured and is out for virtually the rest of the season. Sheyi Ojo just starts to find form, he gets injured….out for the season. Jed’s been our main attacking threat he gets injured – out for a short period of time. It feels like every time we get the chance to move forward we move backwards.

“It has been difficult. There have been things out of our hands, to a certain degree, but part of that is also us having to take the blame. Some of the away performances haven’t been good enough – we haven’t done the right things. We also have to accept that.”