Millwall win at Preston is best away performance under Gary Rowett – but boss also explains why it can’t be termed their top result on travels
Gary Rowett reckons Millwall’s 1-0 win at Preston was their best away display under his watch – but that doesn’t make it their top result on the road.
Shaun Hutchinson’s header at Deepdale made it four victories away from the Den this season.
And all of those have come since Rowett replaced Neil Harris in the Den dugout.
“It is difficult to put them in a list because Preston was probably our best overall performance but Swansea was such an important win,” said the Lions manager, pictured below.
“We hadn’t won away for so long that winning at Swansea sort of psychologically changed our attitude in those games.
“Bristol City was a very good performance. But Preston is up there because we created quite a lot of opportunities and had quite a lot of control of the game.
“We controlled the ball really, really well in the last half an hour and limited them to fleeting moments – that’s very difficult to do at a place like that. You saw when we went to Elland Road how hard it is to stop them getting into goalscoring positions. Even though Preston have got the best home record in the division we managed and controlled the match.”
Millwall’s win cut the gap to North End, in sixth spot in the Championship standings, to four points.
“Even after it went to seven points after the Fulham game it didn’t feel like the next one was a must-win,” said Rowett. “But it does change your perspective sat on the sideline.
“After 60 minutes you are saying: ‘If it stays 0-0 then we’ll have to go for it’. Smudge [Matt Smith] is about to come on and we end up scoring, so he sits back down again.
“It’s a massively important win but we might have gone on to win the next four after this and still be in the mix – who knows? You don’t want the gap to get to eight, nine or 10 points because we’re starting to run out of games.
“Before you know it you are down to single figures and once that happens you can’t afford to make too many mistakes. You want to be in and around it.
“I don’t want to sound unambitious but we’re happy to keep it alive and that we’re still in there fighting.”
PICTURES BY BRIAN TONKS
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