Rowett feels unlucky not to have Bagg-ed win at table-toppers
MILLWALL boss Gary Rowett admitted to feeling “greedy” after claiming his side should have beaten Championship leaders West Brom.
The shares were spoiled at The Hawthorns after two goals in six second-half minutes, a result which still lifted the Baggies into top spot.
But it was the Lions who had the better chances over the 90 minutes and Rowett was frustrated with just a draw.
“It was a good performance and a good point,” he said.
“Could it have been three? I may be being a bit greedy but I felt our chances were of the better quality.
“They had won four on the spin and teams have struggled to deal with their intensity.
“But overall I thought we managed it really well. We conceded a poor goal which I was disappointed with.
“We’ve got away from keeping clean sheets and that’s something we need to get back quickly.”
Following a tetchy first half, the visitors fell behind four minutes after the restart when Kyle Bartley sent a looping header over keeper Bartosz Bialkowski from Conor Townsend’s cross.
Murray Wallace should have equalised soon after but somehow fired wide from six yards.
However, Daniel Ballard, fresh from recently netting his first Northern Ireland goal, levelled on 55 minutes when he headed Jed Wallace’s deep cross back across goal and into the far corner for his maiden Lions goal.
Baggies keeper Sam Johnstone twice came to his side’s rescue after being left short by Semi Ajayi back passes.
He stuck out a leg to deny Jed Wallace in the first half and was quickly out to block from debutant Sheyi Ojo with 16 minutes to go.
Baggies boss Valerien Ismael was pleased with how his side responded after spurning a penalty in added time at the end of the first half.
A cleverly worked corner saw Grady Diangana burst into the area and go down under a challenge from Maikel Kieftenbeld.
Karlan Grant stepped up but Bialkowski guessed the correct way and dived to his right to turn away the striker’s spot-kick.
Ismael said: “The guys reacted very well from the missed penalty, I think we came back strongly and scored a very good goal.
“But we made too many mistakes at the back and gave Millwall opportunities to give them encouragement.
“We want more, we want to win games.
“But it’s important we still took a point. We will learn from the game and adjust.
“We have momentum but we have to take that into the Derby game on Tuesday.”
WEST BROM: Johnstone 8; Ajayi 6, Bartley 7, Kipre 5; Furlong 6, Livermore
6, Mowatt 6, Townsend 6; Diangana
7 (Hugill (46th) 7), Phillips 6, Grant 5 (Robinson (59th) 6)
MILLWALL: Bialkowski 9; Mitchell 7 (Leonard 80th), M Wallace 5, Cooper
9, Ballard 8, Malone 7; Kieftenbeld 7, Saville 6; J Wallace 7, Smith 6,
Ojo 6 (Bennett 80th)
STAR MAN: Jake Cooper
REF: A Woolmer