GARY Rowett said he understood the home fans’ frustration after seeing their team lose 2-0 at home to Luton Town on Saturday.
Harry Cornick scored a goal in each half and Jed Wallace missed a late penalty as the Lions’ seven-game unbeaten run was ended.
“It’s disappointing because we go into the game on the back of a seven-game unbeaten run, to have won two games in a row and be three points off the play-offs and be quite excited about thinking we could put a performance in in front of our fans at home that showed where we desperately wanted to be,” Rowett said.
“We didn’t look like we had that drive, that extra bit of competitive nature about us. We looked like we wanted the game to be a little bit nice.
“I felt Luton came and did all the right things that an away team needs to do. They sat in shape, they worked incredibly hard, they fought for every ball, every time a set-piece went into the box their heads were on it first.
“They’ve scored with two counter-attacks, two transitions and they looked threatening. But we had opportunities to play forward and we didn’t. We got the ball nicked off us trying to play nice little passes.
“That was the disappointment, we’ve had a lot more possession, we had a lot more shots but we didn’t ever really look like we were going to win the game.
“In fairness, I felt Luton deserved to win.
“Even the penalty with 10 minutes to go, yes it gives us 10 minutes to really…it felt like that summed the game up, we miss that penalty and then the game fizzles out.
“I can see our fans leaving and I don’t blame them, they’ve come with the hope that we would put in a really determined performance but I just felt that it wasn’t the performance we needed.”
The Millwall boss was asked what his message would be to fans who were unhappy with the performance.
He said: “My message to them is we’ve got to be better. We’re a team that have to give our fans something to want and come and support.
“In a large part of our games this season we’ve done more than we did today but we’re not going to win every game, we know we’re not that type of team that can just turn up and have the expectation to win every game.
“But we’ve got to show that little bit of grit and determination. The last two games we score a last-minute goal or a late goal but sometimes that’s not going to happen
“So the performance has to be the same sort of determined performance.
“Today I just felt we turned up with wanting the game to be nice. Our fans want to see a little bit of passion, a little bit of determination, a bit more running and energy.
“And we didn’t really show that today. That’s what I’m disappointed with.”