Millwall boss reacts to Luton’s 7-0 loss at Fulham which leaves Lions with goal difference advantage

Gary Rowett has admitted that Fulham’s 7-0 thrashing of Luton Town has given the final day of the Championship season “a completely different complexion”.

The Hatters’ walloping at Craven Cottage means that Millwall, who won 3-0 at home against Peterborough on Saturday, now have a better goal difference than Nathan Jones’ side.

The Lions have to win at AFC Bournemouth on Saturday and hope that Luton fail to win at home against Reading.

The South Londoners can also catch Sheffield United but need them to lose to Fulham at Bramall Lane. The Whites were crowned Championship champions last night.

Middlesbrough, at Preston North End, are also ahead of Millwall in the table.

Asked about Luton’s heavy loss, Rowett told the South London Press: “It’s a funny one because I paused the game at 1-0 and Dave Carolan (Millwall’s performance coach) texted me. I looked at my phone, I was doing something random, and he said: ‘My god, the fourth goal is unbelievable’. Cheers Dave – you’ve ruined the whole bloody game for me!

“You have to feel for anyone getting beaten 7-0 at this stage of the season. But Fulham can do that to any team.

“The interesting thing is that all the talk before the weekend was about Sheffield United and goal difference and now there is a completely different complexion on the possibilities at the weekend. It’s still out of our hands, we know that, but a 10-goal swing certainly changes one or two things.

“The last day is going to be exactly the same as any other last day. There’s lots of different permutations. It’s going to be about who can go and hold their nerve under pressure when it really matters. We’re not going to probably know that until about 2.30 on Saturday afternoon.

“It is very, very exciting.”

Fulham had struggled to settle into that natural passing game before Tom Cairney produced a superb finish in the 29th minute. Luton were effectively down to 10 men with Lions winger Fred Onyedinma picking up what appeared to be a hamstring injury.

Asked about Fulham not putting the ball out of play, Rowett said: “The rules changed, didn’t they? Once upon a time if someone went down injured the moral thing was to put the ball out of play. But it was happening so often, where teams were using it as a bit of an advantage late on in games, then they said unless it was a serious head injury then it will be the referee to stop play – not the players.

“In my opinion, the only one you can look at is whether the referee should’ve stopped play – but it was clear it wasn’t a head injury. I don’t think anyone would complain about that. Of course if it happens to you then you might feel a little hard done by.

“Nine times out of 10 you see a player bounce back up and they are actually okay. I didn’t see it as anything particularly bad or unsporting.”