MILLWALL boss Gary Rowett said his side deserved to beat Sheffield United for the “bravery” they showed at Bramall Lane after he had demanded a response to their 2-1 defeat against Luton Town.
The Lions took the lead through Jed Wallace’s fifth goal of the season in the 11th minute before Billy Sharp levelled from the penalty spot in the 45th minute.
Jake Cooper fired in a dramatic 92nd-minute winner, his second injury-time strike in successive games at the home of the Blades.
Rowett was unsure if Wallace meant his goal, after the attacker’s cross-shot from the right arrowed over goalkeeper Robin Olsen and into the far top corner.
Morgan Gibbs-White was sent off in the 54th minute after he went down in the area claiming contact with Scott Malone, but the United winger was given a second yellow card.
Millwall are up to 10th in the Championship.
“We asked the players for an honest performance, a really hard-working performance,” Rowett told millwallfc.co.uk. “If we did the right things tactically we would cause them problems.
“A place like this is a difficult place to come, there’s always a fabulous atmosphere, they won their last home game, you know if they start brightly then all of a sudden it’s a very difficult game. They’ve got fabulous players, particularly in forward areas, that caused us problems.
“But I thought for the first half an hour we were absolutely brilliant. We counter-attacked, we transitioned, we got our wing-backs in dangerous positions. Our front three caused them problems, I thought we were really, really good.
“And then I would say for about 10 minutes before half-time they just started to cause us a few problems. They’re going to do that with the movement that they’ve got.
“They just dragged us out of areas, they made a change as well and that made a difference, almost playing with two 10s. Those two 10s got behind our midfielders and caused us one or two problems.
“We made a mistake before half-time which was disappointing because I felt we deserved to go in 1-0 up.
“Then half-time changes things a little bit just in terms of that psychology.
“We scored a very good goal, I forgot to mention. You’d have to ask him if it was a cross or a shot, I’m sure he’d say it was a shot. But the fact is he’s quite close to the byline and puts it in a good area with pace.
“Does he mis-hit it, is it a perfect shot? I don’t know, of course he will [say it was intentional], that’s why I haven’t bothered to ask him!
“But it’s good play, whether we get a little bit of good fortune I felt we deserved it with our performance.
“1-1 means it’s a difficult game, it means the game swings in their favour. For 10 minutes in the second half I have to say I was very close to changing formation, very close to changing because I felt as though I needed to. They were causing us problems.
“The sending-off, I haven’t seen it so I don’t know. Scottie felt the lad kicked his leg and then went down, so I don’t know if there’s contact. I was worried for a second that the referee had given another penalty.
“The sending-off changes it a little bit again because now we get into those transition forward areas a little easier. They still had chances and Bart [Bialkowski] had to make a couple of good saves, their keeper had to make a couple of good saves.
“I felt we had to take one of our moments, we had quite a few second half when we needed to be a bit more clinical.
“And then in the end Coops hits a wonderful, wonderful strike. It deserves to win any game of football.
“I felt we deserved it based on the fact that it’s a tough place to come, we’d lost our last game. We deserved it for the bravery that we showed for the vast majority of the game.
“I was tempted to go to 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1 [after the sending-off] and put another forward in. But you look at Sheffield United’s good players and every time the ball broke to them they just kept getting into good positions and looking like they might get something.
“I thought it was a game where freshness might win us it rather than a tactical change. We put Mason [Bennett] on as a left wing-back to see if he might change the dynamic of the game.
“It was a really end-to-end game the last 15 or 20 minutes, I’m sure it was a really good game to watch for the neutral. For both managers I’m sure it wasn’t quite the game that you want.
“Could we take one of our chances? We finally did. I didn’t think it was one of the chances we would take but Coops certainly makes the most of it and it’s a wonderful strike.”
Image: Millwall FC