Millwall probably got rub of the green in narrow win at Reading – Gary Rowett

Millwall manager Gary Rowett admitted that his side “probably got the rub of the green” with their decisive penalty in a hard-earned 1-0 Championship victory at Reading.

In a scrappy affair throughout, Millwall went in front in the 11th minute when Reading goalkeeper Joe Lumley was adjudged to have brought down Zian Flemming in the area.

German midfielder Andreas Voglsammer fired home the resulting spot-kick and Millwall held on comfortably in a mediocre second half to move into the Championship play-off places.

“I thought that we started quite well and got the goal through a good bit of play,” Rowett said.

“Good transition, a bit of quality when Zian (Flemming) does really well and gets brought down for the penalty.

“I think that there was a question mark whether it was inside the area. It was so close.

“It’s like: ‘Is it on the line, is it an inch inside, is it an inch outside’? I couldn’t really answer but I know we probably got a little bit of the rub of the green with that decision.

“Then Andreas takes the penalty and it’s a brilliant finish. He said to me: ‘I’m German, what do you expect? Of course I’m going to score’.

“At that point, my only bugbear was that perhaps we made the game a bit harder than we needed it to be by not using the ball well enough.

“But we were really solid and dealt with Andy Carroll pretty well because he is such a handful.

“It was a really good battle with Charlie Cresswell – a really honest battle – and I thought that we limited him (Carroll) and Reading as well to very few efforts on goal.”

Reading suffered their second 1-0 home defeat in five days, having lost to Sheffield United on Tuesday night.

“It was just one mistake, that was it,” Reading manager Paul Ince said. “It was always going to be a scruffy game.

“I said to the lads that the last thing you want to do is give Millwall a goal because all they do is defend for their lives. And that’s exactly how it went.

“We lost the ball in an uncomfortable position, we didn’t do enough, give away the penalty and they score it. That’s the basis of why we lost the game.

“There was nothing else about it. It was a scruffy game, a horrible game and they made it that way.

“The only real disappointment was that we didn’t have a shot on target – that’s not like us at home.

“But I can’t say that the players haven’t given their all, that the endeavour was not there.

“In the second half, I thought that we were in the ascendancy and looked like the only team that was going to score.

“But we’re just not getting the right balls in the box, the quality of the crossing was poor at times. Maybe we weren’t gambling enough.

“I’ve no real qualms about it, though. It was the game I expected and it was never going to be a classic.

“I said to the players: ‘They’re not a better team than you, that’s for sure’.

“But they just do the basics right, they get their goal and then defend for their lives. And they defend very well.”