GARY Rowett has explained why he left Zian Flemming on the bench for this afternoon’s friendly against Fortuna Sittard.
Millwall lost 2-1 to the Dutch outfit despite taking naming a strong team.
Some eyebrows were raised among fans at Flemming not being among the starting line-up, despite the game being against his former club.
But Rowett said: “I left Duncan [Watmore] out last week because he’s done a lot of work and he’s not had this type of pre-season where he’s managed to get through all of it and be in such good shape.
“I felt with Zi it’s probably a good one just to start Dunc and bring Zian on later on. But we know what a good player he is. He scored 15 goals for us last season.
“I never felt today was going to be an opportunity to just to go and pick the team that starts next week [against Middlesbrough]. I think sometimes you don’t know want to do that completely either, as it gives the other team a good opportunity to see what you’re going to do.
“So we just mixed it up a little bit today and we’ll have some big decisions to make during the week.”
Flemming, 24, came on in the second-half and forced a save out of Fortuna keeper Ivor Pandur late on from a free-kick.
Fortuna fans sang the name of their former midfielder throughout the game.