GARY Rowett said it was a tactical decision to bring off Tyler Burey against Blackburn on Tuesday night.
Millwall lost Daniel Ballard to a groin injury at half-time with George Evans coming on.
The Lions switched from 5-2-1-2 to 4-3-3 after that change but Rowett brought on club skipper Alex Pearce for Burey in the 57th minute as the visitors reverted to five at the back.
“It’s been a difficult game. If you look at young Ty, he came in for a couple of games and was absolutely brilliant,” Rowett told Millwall’s Recast.
“Next couple at times he did some really good things. And the last couple, typical of a young player coming in, he’s playing a little bit out of position and he’s struggled a little bit in those games where there’s not been much space. That’s just something he has to learn.
“Benno [Mason Bennett] was fit but he wasn’t really fit, so I knew I couldn’t put him on too early in the game.
“And we had to make changes to try to stay in the game. We lost Dan at half-time. We came back out and tried to play 4-3-3 to see if that would help us a little bit to sort out [John] Buckley’s movement behind the front.
“That didn’t work. We looked all over the shop for about 10 minutes so I decided to put Pearcey in to give us a bit more leadership and solidity and go back to the 5-3-2 almost.
“We had to try everything we could, really, to get something out of the game and the players just kept going and going and going – and showed incredible character again.”
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