GARY Rowett has praised the job Lee Bowyer has done at his former club Birmingham City ahead of Blues arriving in south London to face Millwall at The Den on Saturday.
Bowyer (above) is Blues’ seventh full-time manager since they sacked Rowett in December 2016 despite their seventh-place position. In the same time Millwall have had two: Neil Harris and Rowett.
Gianfranco Zola took over from Rowett in 2016-17 and Birmingham dropped to finish 19th. They have followed that with finishes of 19th, 17th, 20th and 18th last season after Bowyer had replaced the sacked Aitor Karanka in March.
Rowett led Blues to 10th place in 2014-15 and 2015-16, their two best finishes since 2011-12.
Rowett and Bowyer have faced each other twice as managers, with Rowett winning both against Charlton in 2019-20.
“I think he’s done really well, “ Rowett said when asked for his opinion on Bowyer’s management career. “I think he did a fabulous job at Charlton and he’s doing a good job in somewhat difficult circumstances at Birmingham in some ways.
“They’ve spent a little bit of money this year and brought some good players in. But nevertheless there’s always a little bit of volatility at Birmingham. It’s not an easy situation at times, but he’s dealt with it well.
“They’ve been like a lot of teams in the Championship, they’ve been a little bit inconsistent just like we have.
“Lee will be doing the same as I am, just searching for that right formula to get that extra bit of consistency.
“But he’s done a really good job.”
Millwall are a point and four places ahead of Birmingham in the table. Both sides have struggled to score goals. The Lions have 20 in 20 games, Blues the only team with fewer in the top 18 in the Championship with 19.
Rowett added: “The frustration at the moment is that we’re actually creating really good chances. In the Bournemouth game we created lots of opportunities, Bart [Bialkowski] has hardly had a save to make.
“It was the same against Hull, not really many saves to make and we created other opportunities but we’re not being clinical enough at the moment.
“It’s the hardest thing to get that balance right and for us at the moment that’s a frustrating aspect.
“But for clubs like ours there’s no easy solution. What would 20 goals guaranteed in the Championship cost right now? You’re talking about [Dominic] Solanke, [Aleksandar] Mitrovic and possibly even [Ben] Brereton. Other than that there is no guarantee.
“We’ll keep working hard and I think it will change. If you create so many chances at some point something is going to drop for us and we’re going to start to put some of those chances away.
“That’s our aim, that’s what we’re working towards.”
Image: Millwall FC