Millwall were left heartbroken after a last-gasp defeat to Nottingham Forest at the Den on Saturday afternoon and after the game, Gary Rowett spoke to VAVEL UK.
A Bitter pill
Speaking of the nature of the defeat, the Millwall manager could not hide his frustration,
"It's a bitter pill to swallow but that's Championship football. We've got to take our chances but there were silly decisions.
There are little moments in the game we need to manage better so it's disappointing."
Up against it
Rowett explained that the defeat was compounded by recent challenges off the pitch,
“We had a bit of a challenge yesterday in that we had two players waiting on PCR tests who couldn’t train,” said Rowett. “We finally got them through negative this morning, so they were available but hadn’t trained.
“We lost Saville yesterday to (neck) injury. We lost Jed to (thigh) injury, but it doesn’t look too serious. We had to think on our feet a little bit in terms of one or two positions on the bench which need to change the game.
Losing Tom Bradshaw to injury
During the game, Millwall faced further adversity as in-form striker, Tom Bradshaw was forced off with a knee injury that could mean the end of his season,
“What you can’t afford to do in that situation is lose two of your most dangerous attacking players. To lose Tom Bradshaw to what looked a serious injury – he felt something pop in his knee, I’m hopeful it isn’t too bad but it doesn’t look too great. Sheyi has rolled his ankle when he landed just before half-time and couldn’t continue in the second half.”
Transfer news
Jed Wallace was noticeable for his absence versus Nottingham Forest having been the subject of two bids from the visitors. Asked about his absence, Rowett said,
“He’s had a little quad strain. He trained Tuesday and Thursday. He just felt his quad Friday, so was again unavailable.
He’s had it scanned. I don’t think it is particularly serious but there is something there to concern him."
We’ve spoken about strengthening the group this window. We’ve spoken about trying to bring at least one attacking player into the group, that might make it a little bit different that we need to bring in two or three now because a couple of injuries like that put you right on the back foot.”
The challenge for Millwall will be recruiting new players in time to keep pace with the other Championship play-off hopefuls. If they don't they will be looking at another season of mid-table mediocrity which, on today's performance, will feel like a missed opportunity.