Millwall boss Rowett: West Brom penalty was wrong call by the referee

BY ALEX GRACE

Millwall boss Gary Rowett was left frustrated with referee Andy Woolmer’s decision to award West Brom a penalty in first half stoppage time.

Maikel Kieftenbeld was adjudged to have fouled Grady Diangana right at the end of the first half. Karlan Grant’s kick was saved by Lions keeper Bart Bialkowksi.

“I didn’t think it was a penalty, ” said Rowett. “I’ve watched it back. I don’t think Maikel Kieftenbeld has moved his feet at all, so I think it would have been harsh to go 1-0 down at that point. Bart obviously got us off the hook and made a fabulous save.

“When we equalised I thought we would go on and win it, then there was a little swing in the game and of course you’ve still got to defend but I felt it was a good performance and a good point. Could it have been three? I felt our chances were certainly better.”

Millwall had two penalty claims of their own in the second half on Jake Cooper and Matt Smith, neither of which were given.

“I didn’t think that was a penalty [on Cooper],” said Rowett. “The same with the one on Matt Smith, I don’t think it was clear. I’m not sitting here saying they shouldn’t have had a penalty and we should have had three or four, certainly not. I just felt a moment like that, if it was clear, fair enough. If we had VAR then I don’t believe it would have still stood [the West Brom penalty].

“We conceded a poor goal which I’m disappointed about. We’ve gone away from keeping clean sheets which is something we need to improve on but we always looked threatening today. When we got our goal I thought Shey Ojo and Jed looked a major, major threat on the counter attack and we really should have scored another goal in that period which I think would have given us a really good chance to win the game.”