Rowett raves about match-winner Wallace

Posted Sunday, November 24, 2019 by PA

Millwall manager Gary Rowett hailed Jed Wallace after his strike ended their winless away run with a 1-0 victory at Swansea.

The Lions forward curled in a free-kick to make it three wins from four under their new manager.

Their first victory on the road this term was built on defensive solidarity as they frustrated a sloppy Swansea side.

Rowett said: “Since coming into the club we’ve looked for players with those Millwall characteristics of hard work, energy and desire like he gave here, with that added bit of quality.

“Jed has always been a good player, he’s a really flexible player who can play in any of the forward positions.

“He has some really good traits, he matches his quality with his work ethos for the team which is really important for us moving forward.

“Jed’s an infectious character, he wants to work, he wants to play and he wants to go and train, that’s how he is.”

Wallace fired over from close range just before half-time after following up Connor Mahoney’s saved shot, but he made no mistake after the interval.

Swansea defender Mike van der Hoorn tangled with Wallace as he threatened to get on the end of a hopeful ball downfield.

Referee Andy Davies blew for a free-kick and booked the Swansea defender, before Wallace dusted himself off and found the top corner with a curling free-kick from 20 yards out.

Davies had another big call to make in the final 10 minutes when George Byers appeared to pull Jiri Skalek down in the box to prevent him getting to Wallace’s cross. But the referee waved away the Millwall protests.

In the end it did not matter as the visitors held on for victory and Rowett added: “It was a really nice way to end the run of games without an away win. The players were conscious of it and needed to do something about it.

“We’ve worked on a formation the last few weeks to help us away from home. We felt we needed to change something, not just from a football or tactical perspective but from a psychological perspective.

“We created the best chances of the match and I thought we were relatively comfortable in terms of Swansea’s chances.”

Swansea have only managed to claim four points from a possible 18 at home in recent months and manager Steve Cooper admits they were deservedly beaten.

He said: “We certainly fell short, that’s for sure.

“We’ll always take a look at ourselves first and we all know back in the dressing room that we weren’t at the level today – not in any area of the pitch.

“It’s not a good return, those four losses at home. We know that, but I don’t think it’s about momentum or there being any added pressure. We just did not play well.

“When we did have moments we did not capitalise on them, and we have conceded a disappointing goal. So, lots of things accumulated into it being a poor performance.

“We have got to be good at dealing with what comes our way and we work to make sure we have solutions.

“They put a lot of bodies around their box, but we have good enough players to play through and around that, but we did not do that.”