LIONS CUBS SHOW TEETH FOR ROWETT

GARY ROWETT had dangled the carrot of extra days off to his players as reward for beating Middlesbrough.

That was probably not the motivation for two stand-out performances by Millwall’s homegrown rookies Danny McNamara and Billy Mitchell.

Both took their chance to impress and looked as if they would happily play every day if they could. That may be difficult as Rowett hopes to welcome back Ryan Leonard and Maikel Kieftenbeld from injury after the international break.

But the Lions boss was full of praise for the work of the Millwall academy in producing two players he can rely on.

Rowett said: “Danny Mac was excellent coming back into the team and Billy Mitchell was absolutely outstanding.

“We’ve some good young players at the club and what we are starting to see is a couple of them really embedding into the team and performing really well at Championship level.

“So hats off to all the guys that have worked with those players.”

Rowett picked Mitchell (above) for the energy and drive he would bring to the midfield battle and that is what he got, the 19-yearold’s bite leading to the winner.

He robbed Djed Spence, then released Jed Wallace, whose cross was turned into his own net on 31 minutes by Boro’s Grant Hall.

Defeat was a big blow to Boro’s promotion bid. Boss Neil Warnock said: “If we play like we did in the first half we’re not going to get another point, so let’s not start thinking about play-offs.”

MILLWALL: Bialkowski 7, Hutchinson 7, M Wallace 7, Cooper 7, McNamara 7 (Romeo 87), Evans 7, Woods 7 (Williams 81), Mitchell 7, Malone 7 (Pearce 87) , Bennett 7 (Bodvarsson 64, 6), J Wallace 8 (Bradshaw 81) MIDDLESBROUGH: Bettinelli 6, Spence 5 (Mendez-Laing 46, 6), Hall 6, Fry 6, Bola 6, Howson 6, McNair 6 (Kebano 81), Johnson 6, Tavernier 6 (Saville 45, 6), Bolasie 5 (Watmore 46, 6), Akpom 5 (Fletcher 46, 6)

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