‘We had to dig it out’ – Gary Rowett’s verdict after Millwall secure victory at Cardiff City

By Alex Grace

Gary Rowett admitted it was a tough afternoon for his side despite claiming a 1-0 win away to Cardiff City.

The Lions secured all three points at the Cardiff City Stadium for the first time since 2005, thanks to Tom Bradshaw’s first-half winner in the 26th minute.

This was the South Londoners’ fourth away win of the Championship season.

 “You could say that, for large parts of the game, certainly in the second half, it was pretty attritional,” said Rowett.

 “The game dictated that a little bit. When you come to Cardiff, and they’ve got almost nothing to lose, they almost play with a front four and keep them quite high up against you.

“Every time we attacked and lost the ball, we felt like we were almost four against four – we left ourselves very open at times. 

“We could’ve dealt with that a lot better.”

 Rowett changed formation three times as his side were forced to really dig deep and avoid conceding a late equaliser.

 “Going a goal up means that we have a tendency to drop in and protect what we’ve got,” explained Rowett.

“We had to do that for long spells. We had to change formation three times – we had to put different players on.

 “We had to dig it out, and sometimes those three points actually feel a lot nicer than three points when you’ve played really well. The character of the group came to the fore today.”