GARY Rowett said that the shortened World Cup break may have had an impact on his side’s performance against Sunderland, but that it isn’t an excuse for their poor second half at the Stadium of Light.
The Lions started the game well but collapsed after the restart, ultimately losing 3-0 thanks go goals from Amad Diallo, Alex Pritchard and Ellis Simms.
The opening stages of the match showed no signs of rustiness, but Rowett’s side lost momentum and confidence in the second half, although the Millwall boss is determined to avoid using it as an excuse for not picking up a positive result on Wearside.
“Well, clearly we played too soon, so I might put a formal complaint in to the FA and say I wanted an extra week’s break,” he joked after the match.
“It’s unusual for everybody. Everyone has to deal with it in their own way, how they see fit, and you’ve just got to hope it doesn’t affect your team when they come back.
“It’s interesting, really, because a lot of the press is that if you’ve finished on a positive result, that’s great going into a break, and if you finish on a negative result, that’s poor going into a break. Actually, I think that’s the other way around.
“The poor result gives you a chance to rebuild and work on things. With a good result, you can only really lose momentum in some ways.
“I don’t think that necessarily happened. I think we worked well over the break. I think the first half performance wasn’t the performance of a rusty team, I think we’ve just conceded very poor goals. It was reminiscent of our early-season away form where we’re gifting goals to other teams and they gain the confidence from it.
“Sunderland have got some good players. I think they’ve struggled a little bit at home, but when you’ve got a little bit of momentum with some of the players they’ve got, the technical players behind Simms, who’s a handful, they’re going to cause teams problems.
“We’ve got to deal with that better and the only positive for us is that we’ve had a game out of the way, so hopefully by next week when everyone else plays, there really aren’t any excuses.”
Photo: Millwall FC