‘We haven’t had enough players do the business in final third’ – Lions boss gives verdict on another frustrating blank

Millwall manager Gary Rowett was once again left to rue a lack of end product in tonight’s 1-0 loss to Birmingham City.

The Lions have failed to score in five of their last six Championship matches.

Lukas Jutkiewic’s 28th-minute finish from a tight angle – a telling deflection off the diving George Long diverting the ball into the net – settled the contest.

Millwall had an expected goals (xG) of 2.38 compared to their opponents’ 0.57.

But replacement keeper Neil Etheridge, who came on for John Ruddy in the first half, made an instinctive reaction save to deny Tom Bradshaw a 16th goal of the campaign.

Millwall had 21 attempts, seven on target.

“Clearly on an evening like this you have got to perform and it probably took us 20-25 minutes to settle down,” Rowett told Sky Sports. “You can see what Birmingham were trying to do right from the start – they are sat in, deep and made it very difficult to find space.

“We just played too many straight, long balls. We need to show a little bit of composure on the ball. We concede a very poor goal. If you watch it back, I don’t think we should concede from a situation like that.

“When you go 1-0 down it allows them to drop in even more. And it allows them to slow the game down, more importantly. That was one of my huge frustrations. They are entitled to do that. I’ve got no complaints with them at all. If you look at the substitutions, the goalkeeper taking time and I think their bench even kicked the ball away towards the end of the game. Nothing was done about it. If that happens, you allow the opposition to keep doing it.

“Second half it was clear to see we were pretty dominant and created some very good chances and it’s just that last little bit, you’ve got to find those moments of quality to turn games – particularly when you concede the first goal.

“I was really pleased with the second half but, and I’ve been saying it all season, we’ve got to start taking chances. We’ve got two players on very, very good numbers – but we haven’t got enough players who have done the business in the final third. It’s made the next few games even more important and we’ve got to step up.

“They (Etheridge and Ruddy) have made some good saves. We had the same here against Huddersfield, they had one moment and we had about 70 per cent possession. We were completely dominant. We’ve done it ourselves sometimes, you can nick one and then sit in and ride it out – see what happens.

“You are then in a position where you can disrupt the game and you can take your time – frustrate the home fans and our team, stopping us getting that little bit of continuity that we needed.

“We’ve got to go and score – simple as that. At this stage of the season, goals are massive. We hadn’t scored, before Saturday, in three or four games and tonight was disappointing we didn’t score again.

“As a manager I don’t want to ruin players’ confidence but you’ve got to score goals from all avenues in this division. We have got players with ability, players who got into good positions tonight and players who can score goals – I see it every day in training. It’s got to come out now. That’s the hardest bit, isn’t it? The players have worked so hard to get to this point and they’ll be feeling a night like tonight and be frustrated with it.

“All you can do is work the next game and make sure you put some of the things that we didn’t do so well a little bit better – and be more clinical.”

Millwall are fifth but can be caught by West Bromwich Albion, Coventry and Blackburn – who they host on the final day – if they were to win their matches in hand.

“I don’t think there is an easy way to get in the top six for us,” said Rowett. “Everybody looks at the game tonight and thinks we’ll just roll over Birmingham and then happy days. The Championship does not work like that. You have to work really hard for all the points.

“There are teams around us with quality in those forward areas and the ability to win games, so we have to expect teams are going to go and get results. It’s up to us to take care of our own side of it. We didn’t in the first 25 minutes today.

“We’ve got to go to places like Wigan and get results. But if we think they are going to be easy, we need to think again. We’ve got to earn it and win games to earn it. We’ll keep trying. The performance second half was very good. We’ve got to play with that sort of confidence and composure at the start of the game.”

PICTURES: KEITH GILLARD