Millwall manager Gary Rowett explains why he had mixed emotions after away win at Rotherham

BY ALEX GRACE

Gary Rowett had mixed emotions after Millwall secured their first league victory of the season.

Jed Wallace’s goal five minutes into the second half was enough for all three points against Rotherham at The New York Stadium

“It was a very difficult game,” said Rowett.  “Rotherham are very good at what they do, hence the reason they got promoted last season. They want to drag you into a really physical game which they are really good at. They put a lot of balls into your box and it makes you have to defend.

“The game plan was certainly to show a lot more composure on the ball and try to get into some good areas, release that pressure and force some pressure  of our own – we didn’t do that anywhere near well enough in the first half. Were we resilient? Yes. Did we defend well? Yes, we did. That’s what we are good at – but what we have to show is a little more composure.”

It’s four points from six for Millwall in the Championship so far this season and back to back clean sheets.

“We’ve had two tough games in the league, we’ve had Stoke and Rotherham, they’re not easy games to play by any stretch of imagination and we aren’t a good enough side to look at these games as ones we should win,” said Rowett. “We have to earn the right to win them. We didn’t pass the ball well enough in the first half. In the second half we probably did it better. For 25 minutes, we moved them around a little bit more.”

Wallace scored his first goal since January 28.

Rowett said: “We get a little bit of fortune with the goal but Jed antIcipates it well and takes it well and then we defended for 15 minutes and headed balls out of our box that normally would be very easy to crumble under the pressure and be very easy to succumb to those balls in the box. But I have to say we probably didn’t do enough in the attacking sense to win the game today.”

PHOTOS: SEAN GOSLING