GARY Rowett felt Millwall missed the atmosphere created by the home fans as they lost their first game back after the resumption of Championship football.
Eighteen-year-old Louie Sibley took the match ball home from an empty Den after scoring a hat-trick on just his second league start.
Matt Smith gave Millwall the lead before Sibley’s first made it 1-1 at the break. He scored twice more before Jon Dadi Bodvarsson pulled a goal back in added-time.
The game was played behind closed doors and Derby dominated possession for much of the afternoon.
Rowett was also unhappy with how sloppy his side were defensively.
“It’s difficult because we all knew coming into these games we’d have to try to learn very quickly,” Rowett said. “I knew it was going to feel strange, we’re obviously a team that thrives off the energy of the crowd at certain moments of the game.
“We found it hard when the game fell flat. Derby navigated that better than us with their technical players and their slow build-up play.
“I thought we started very well, we scored a very good goal. It was good play, we broke well after pinching it in midfield and showed composure to put a good ball in for Matt Smith. After that we conceded two very, very poor goals. They were well taken by Sibley, I’m sure Derby were delighted with them.
“But they were very soft and I thought defensively we just looked a little bit passive, we didn’t quite move our feet very well and get around the ball. We switched off but everyone’s learning.
“Nevertheless we created a lot of opportunities, we had around four one-on-ones.
“That’s always going to be a challenge. We’ve seen a massive swing in results in favour of away teams. Whether that’s the home team not having the significant advantage of your own fans, psychologically maybe that’s a problem.
“For us it’s a huge thing, of course. If you go and press you get the crowd behind you and a little bit of momentum. Of course that’s not there.
“From what I’ve seen in the first few games perhaps the more technical teams find it easier, they’ve got the ball a lot more so don’t necessarily need the tempo of the game to help them.
“Again, we’ve conceded poor goals, created some good opportunities. I felt that Derby were far more clinical with the quality of their front players.”
Image: Millwall FC