GARY Rowett has told his players to be ready for “hard work” after defeat in the final pre-season game against Fortuna Sittard.
Tom Bradshaw scored a tidy goal to open to scoring but the Dutch side won the friendly thanks to strikes from Alen Halilovic and Tijjani Noslin.
It’s Millwall first friendly loss in front of fans this summer but Lions boss Rowett still saw things that he liked and said he is taking a few positives from pre-season as a whole.
But he warned his players that the hard work starts on Monday ahead of the opening weekend of the Championship season.
He said: “It was slightly different to the Charlton game in terms of there was less atmosphere and it did not feel as much of an intense game. But nevertheless it was a good workout. [Fortuna] moved the ball quite well.
“Off the ball first half we actually worked our shape really well. There were times when we turned the ball over and got into good areas. We probably should have come in at half-time two or three goals up, if I’m being honest. But we were a little wasteful in our finishing.
“It was a good goal and Bradders [Bradshaw] ends up switching play which you have to do against a back four to open the spaces. Danny makes a good run and the ball gets cut back to Bradders for a really good finish. Bradders, Nissy [Kevin Nisbet] and Dunc [Duncan Watmore] looked quite good as a three. They created problems.”
Nisbet had a chance to score from the spot at 1-1 but had his effort saved by Fortuna keeper Ivor Pandur. Noslin then had his own penalty saved before netting the rebound.
Rowett added: “After [the penalty miss] the game fizzled out a little bit and I thought that was disappointing. We made a lot of changes and changed formation to try and get on the front foot a little more and actually we kind of just went into ‘let’s get through the last 30 minutes’ mode.
“That was probably the disappointment. I just wanted to see a little bit more energy. But I’m also realistic to know that sometimes these games it’s hard to inject that into it.
“So big positives, we scored a few goals in pre-season. All the forward players virtually have gotten goals and there’s some good partnerships building. We got through it physically with only George Honeyman that’s injured.
“I would love to go and win the last three or four games so that everyone thinks you’re going to get promoted but in reality it doesn’t happen in pre-season like that. We’ve got to have some hard work this week and I’ve said to the players and said they better be ready for Monday because we need to come in and need to work.
“We need to get a little bit more out of it than we did the game today and be ready for Middlesbrough, which I’m sure we will be.”
