Millwall manager Gary Rowett believes Bristol City were as good as any of the 12 teams the Lions have faced at The Den this season as Nigel Pearson’s Robins emerged from south east London with a hard-fought point.
Pearson went into the contest under some pressure after just one win in their previous eight games and supporter frustration over tactics, selection and the last two performances at Ashton Gate, but City certainly didn’t lack commitment, discipline and a collective team ethic against Millwall, delivering a strong defensive display when they needed it the most.
The Lions boast the fourth-best home record in the Championship, but Rowett was impressed by what he saw from City in the way they were organised and restricted his team and is confident they’ll soon start to climb the Championship standings once again.
“I think they’re the sort of team where you’re a little bit surprised they’re down there but it’s a tough division - the division doesn’t wait for teams, you’ve got to pick up those points,” Rowett said. “They’ve had quite a few key injuries, which doesn’t make it easy but I thought they were pretty bright.
"They were as good as any away team this season. Good players, lots of energy; Andi Weimann, I had him at Derby - top, top player in this division, Semenyo, Scott, Matty James - experience in front of the back four and good composure. They’ve got a good team.
"I can’t say I’ve seen enough of them to say why they are where they are because Nigel’s a very experienced manager but I’m sure they’ll be in a much healthier position within the next four or five games, I’m sure."
Rowett was frustrated by Millwall’s lack of quality in the final third as although they dominated the possession battle didn’t possess the necessary penetration to open City up, with Pearson reinstating Rob Atkinson into his back three and the 25-year-old performing well in the central role flanked by Zak Vyner and Kal Naismith.
What was crucial to City’s approach was the way in which Tommy Conway and Antoine Semenyo quickly retreated out of possession to create another defensive block for the Lions to try and play through, something which they struggled all evening.
The closest the hosts came to scoring was when Andrea Voglsammer drove goalwards from 18 yards but a combination of Atkinson’s thigh and the crossbar denied the German.
“5-3-2, they were playing with five defenders across the back but I thought they pressed us well, made it difficult for us to play through them at times and sometimes that’s what happens - when you’re a team that needs a result, you up your performance level and play with a bit more energy,” Rowett added.
“We’re not the sort of team who can just easily play through teams, that’s not what we are but we just huffed and puffed a little bit and found it very difficult to make that last quality pass every time we got into the final third; either there were too many bodies in the box, defensively, we didn’t quite get enough numbers in there. Or, the last little action was not consistent enough or with enough quality.
“We created a couple of chances - Bradders (Tom Bradshaw), first half, and then Vogey which the defender did really well to deflect onto the bar, it was a brilliant strike - and then they had a couple of chances when Longey (George Long) saved well from Semenyo and then Andi Weimann, an old player of mine he doesn’t usually miss from there. We were waiting for the offside flag so we got away with it a bit.
“We just didn’t play with enough composure to get the ball to our full-backs because, against that formation, the full-backs are crucial for starting off your attacks. It took us 20 minutes to do that. And when we did, I just felt we kept coming back into midfield, which is fine, but then we needed to go forward a bit quicker and with a bit more quality.
“We played a bit safe at times, partly down to our performance but partly down to Bristol getting behind the ball very quickly; the amount of times we made an extra pass and, by that time, their two strikers had got behind almost our midfield.”
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