‘You can’t make silly decisions’ – Gary Rowett on Millwall’s 1-0 loss to Nottingham Forest

Gary Rowett reckons Millwall need to work on managing games better after they were undone by a last-minute winner against Nottingham Forest today.

Lewis Grabban’s 92nd-minute strike gave the visitors all three points at The Den.

Rowett said: “It’s a bitter pill to swallow. That’s Championship football, if the game becomes end to end, what you have to do is take your chance and we had a couple of really good ones in the second half.

“What you can’t do is make silly decisions. Not long before it [the Forest goal] we take a short corner and it’s a point where you should put the ball in the box and see if you can get on the end of something.

“We do it for the right reasons, but we take a throw-in, Mason’s ran 60 yards across the pitch, he’s on his backside on the floor, and we take a throw-in and it’s only Benik up there. We lose the ball and they end up going and scoring. There’s little moments in the game which we need to manage it a little better. Whether that’s the individual player that’s doing it, or if that’s other players around – just wait.

“I appreciate we want to win the game, but there has to be a realistic chance of winning the game in that moment. Otherwise you see what happens, you lose the game.

“We were the team in the ascendancy in the first half. We were the better team, we had some good chances early on. The keeper’s made a couple of really, really good saves.

“We tried everything we could second half to try and win the game. It’s maybe just that ability to keep their attacking players on – and then add to it later in the game – with a little more energy has given Forest that one moment they needed to win the game.

“Disappointed because I thought there were so many positives to take out of the game. Forest had more of the game second half and they looked quite dangerous at times. But I still feel it’s a game where we deserve something out of it. We didn’t get it because we made a poor decision.”

Asked about it being an entertaining game for a neutral, Rowett replied: “Fabulous! I really wish I was a neutral, in moments like that. It was a good game – end to end – and that’s what happens sometimes, Steve will be absolutely elated to take the three points and for us it’s a real disappointment because you work so hard all season. We’ve played really well recently but just not had the rub of the green and results to match our performances.

“When you lose a game in the 92nd-minute it just feels like a bitter blow. You’ve got to do the right things in a game and today we make one crucial error and they have punished us for it.”