Millwall secured their first win under new boss Gary Rowett on Saturday thanks to goals from Ben Thompson and Jed Wallace.
Rowett only met the players on Thursday, meaning they only had two days to prepare for the visit of Stoke City with Rowett admitting:
“It’s always difficult when you’ve not had a lot of time to work with the team, it’s been a busy week, but we had to make sure not to inhibit the players too much, so we had to give the amount of advice we thought necessary.”
Lions On The Front-Foot
The Lions looked the far livelier side in the opening 10 minutes with the home fans passionately backing their team.
Despite the early pressure, the home team failed to register a shot on goal until the 16th minute when Wallace unleashed a curling effort that went just wide of the far post, after some good passing down the left-hand side.
Left-back Murray Wallace then tried his luck from a similar position with his weaker right-foot, but that too curled just wide of Adam Federici’s goal.
The Lions eventually got the breakthrough they deserved on 28 minutes when Wallace beat his man down the right-hand side and fizzed in a dangerous cross that was side-footed home by Thompson, netting his first goal of the campaign.
Potters Lacking Cutting Edge
Stoke endured more of the ball than the home team in the first half but were struggling to break down a resilient Lions defence. After some nice interplay, the ball broke to Badou Ndiaye who lashed his effort wide of Bartosz Bialkowski’s goal.
At half-time, the visitors brought on James McClean to replace Scott Hogan in a change of formation, but it was the home side who had the first chance of the second half when Wallace broke free down the right before getting a strike on goal from a tight angle that Federici did very well to tip wide.
Stoke had a glorious chance to equalise on the hour mark when the ball broke kindly to former Lions striker Lee Gregory, but Shaun Hutchinson did extremely well to poke the ball out for a corner just as Gregory was about to strike.
Wallace At The Centre
Wallace seemed to be at the centre of everything for the Lions and was again with 73 minutes on the clock when he beat three Potters players down the right before he was illegally brought down by Ndiaye as he bared down on goal.
Wallace himself picked himself up and thumped home from the penalty spot to give the Lions a two-goal lead.
With nine-minutes remaining, the home side nearly made it three when Jake Cooper laid the ball off to Jayson Molumby before his long-range effort when just over the crossbar.
A Tom Ince effort that went wide and a tame Sam Vokes header was all that the visitors could muster in the closing stages as Millwall held out for a very impressive first win in the new Rowett era.
Rowett Pleased
The new Lions boss was pleased with his side’s energy levels and character as they overcame a tricky and under-performing Stoke side:
“We were on the front foot, very energetic, they showed me the unbelievable character that I already know they have,” Rowett told the Millwall website.
“It’s fantastic for us – the performance in the first half was as good as I’ve ever seen from a side I’ve managed. It’s been a big, demanding week and some of the energy levels were fantastic. The first half showed so much of that, that the main discussion with the staff at half-time was that we knew there would come a point where it was hard to maintain that level.
“We did struggle to get out at times, but we defended well, kept a really good shape and I think their first shot on target came after 80-85 minutes. The crowd helped us when we needed it and showed their backing which is crucial to helping carry us through. The crowd gave us the momentum we needed, the players finished far stronger and we deserved the second goal.”
Next up
The Lions now sit 15th in the Sky Bet Championship and travel to Reading next Saturday whilst Stoke still sit in the relegation zone in 23rd. They host West Bromwich Albion next Monday.
