Phil Sumbler
Millwall boss Gary Rowett cut the picture of a frustrated man yesterday afternoon as he watched his side succumb to a 3-0 defeat to the Swans, a result that gave the Swans a second successive league win.
Rowett though did take time in his post match press conference to heap praise on Swansea captain Matt Grimes who scored the second of the Swans three goals with Jamal Lowe and Mykola Kiuarevich scoring either side of the skipper.
Grimes has been pretty much ever present at the Swans in the past few seasons and attracts much praise from opposition dugouts for his performances and yesterday was no different
“They move the ball well,” said Rowett. “And they make it difficult but I thought [Matt] Grimes … he’s as good as any midfielder on the ball and every time you go and press him, he just plays round it. He’s very, very good at it. It gave us a little bit of problem first and foremost.”
Whilst it was Grimes that was attracting the attention from Rowett he was not hiding away from the inconsistencies that he says hits his team at the moment
“We’ve been too inconsistent so far this season. We’ve been inconsistent not just in quality but also in effort. And I think that’s probably the one that’s disappointed me the most. I felt today a little like the Norwich game we weren’t competitive enough off the ball and that’s something that’s been a hallmark of our performances for a long time. So certainly don’t want that to creep in as the norm for us as we can’t afford to do that.
“Goals change moods. Goals change feelings in stadiums. Goals change players’ confidence levels. And it shouldn’t do but that’s just how the game is sometimes. I thought we started too passively, I thought we allowed Swansea to move the ball.
to go 1-0 down of course is not an ideal position. We actually responded quite well to that, I thought we actually got in some good areas and in some decent positions without really having a clinical edge to us. I think that was the factor today, we just didn’t quite have that clinical edge when we did get those chances or we did get shots around the edge of the box.
“And then even at 1-0 we changed formation a couple of times and even at 1-0, I felt that if we went on and got that next goal, that the game would turn and change. We obviously concede a pretty poor goal, the second goal, and we’re now 2-0 down and I think from there on I didn’t really like the way we responded. We’ve had a habit at times of conceding goals and showing our frustration rather than fight until the last season of the game.”
