GARY Rowett praised Zian Flemming for his instinctual reaction to capitalise on a Bristol City mistake in the second half of Saturday’s 2-1 win.
The Lions were level going into the final few minutes of the match, but after the Robins failed to clear a free-kick, Flemming popped up to steer the rebound into the back of an empty net with Max O’Leary off his line.
The Dutchman has now scored five goals in his last five games, helping Millwall climb up to 11th in the Championship table. Rowett was pleased with how his side reacted to conceding an equaliser in the final stages of the game, and believes that Flemming was the perfect man to score the winner at Ashton Gate.
“We got a little bit of fortune, didn’t we?” he said after the game.
“At that point, to concede a goal, I was disappointed. I think they put another attacker on and that started to drag our back four around a little bit.
“To change Styles and Muzza, Styles is not a natural left back, I thought he coped well, he’s not a natural left back. At that point, you look at it and think ‘are we going to be under the cosh for the final 15 minutes?’
“We then score, I thought we responded quite well, we then get a little bit of fortune. It’s actually a poor free-kick that goes in, the keeper comes out and punches it under pressure from his own players, I don’t think there was many of ours in there and it drops to Zi.
“If you want it to fall to one player you want it to fall to him, he’s not going to miss, he knows he’s got to play it first time, he knows he hasn’t got the time to take a touch.
“It was nice to score that type of goal. After that we changed formation again. We shut up shop, we tried not to let them have anything and I thought other than a little mixup late on there wasn’t a lot to worry about.”
Photo: Millwall FC