GARY Rowett had no problem with Kevin Friend being in charge of Millwall’s game against Preston on Tuesday night – and felt the referee made the correct decision on the penalty against his side.
Friend, 50, was dropped from the next round of Premier League games after his handling of Crystal Palace’s 3-1 defeat to Liverpool at Selhurst Park.
Friend awarded a debatable penalty to the visitors after initially giving a goal-kick following a collision between Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita and Reds forward Diogo Jota. Friend then gave a penalty to Liverpool after being advised to review the incident by the VAR, Craig Pawson.
Palace boss Patrick Vieira said: “He [Jota] was really smart and the referee was naive and VAR was naive. There was no way he would get the ball back to score. I don’t even want to talk about it.”
Friend was in the thick of the action again at The Den when he awarded a spot-kick to Preston after he judged Shaun Hutchinson had pulled the shirt of Andrew Hughes as the ball came across from a corner.
The Lions got a reprieve when Ben Whiteman’s penalty came back off the post and bounced away to safety.
Rowett was asked afterwards if he had any issue with Friend being given the game after his demotion.
“I’ve got no problem with it at all, that’s not my concern,” Rowett said. “It’s up to the referees [organisations] to pick whichever referee they think is suitable for whichever games.
“He’s a Premier League referee, I think everyone makes mistakes. Refereeing a Championship game, in my opinion, is not necessarily any easier than a Premier League game.
“It’s probably a little bit harder because you’re not able to go and look at a screen and get people to help you out.
“I’ve got no problem with that at all.”
Whiteman’s miss gave Millwall the chance to go on and claim a clean sheet in the 0-0 draw, the first time they have registered consecutive shut-outs since last October.
Rowett added: “We’ve been critical that we haven’t kept enough. Preston have showed under Ryan they’re a side that can win games of football. West Brom as we know have lots of attacking quality.
“That’s the bit I’m really pleased about. I don’t think they were particularly defensive performances. There were lots of chances to break the teams down, lots of opportunities with the ball to try to do that.
“But I’m pleased the defence have responded, the team have responded. We got a little bit of fortune with the penalty. I think it was a penalty, Hutchy has dragged him down.
“The only thing I would say is we should have had about 30 penalties this season if they’re going to give it for every drag-down.”
Image: Millwall FC