Gary Rowett expressed his disappoint at his players’ poor display in their home defeat to Coventry.

A dismal first half display allowed the away side to pull clear as the Lions returned to action after an enforced break due to COVID cases in the squad.

The defeat leaves the Lions with just one win in their last 13 games, a run of form that has seen them drop to 17th in the table.

Rowett said, ‘It was a poor performance, especially the first half.’

‘To come in 2-0 down probably flattered us. Coventry were excellent, they showed what it takes to get a result.

‘They were prepared to work their socks off, prepared to close down, go and sprint, get in our faces and make it difficult for us to have time on the ball.

‘I didn’t think we did the same to them, we didn’t play with enough bravery around them.’

‘I thought we were a yard off all over the place. The first goal was symbolic of that, we didn’t regain our defensive shape quickly enough.

‘The second one, they just play through and we just stand off all over the pitch.’

Millwall’s performance improved in the second half, with Rowett changing to a back five and introducing loanees Troy Parrott and Ken Zohore.

He continued, ‘The likes of Troy came on and looked incredibly bright. Ken Zohore looked bright and made a bit of a difference.

‘Was the performance better second half? Yep. Was it good enough? Probably not, they still had chances and could have made the game safe.’

The Millwall boss was unhappy with Murray Wallace’s late red card but felt the situation that caused it showed the difference between the two sides.

He said, ‘What summed the game up for me was in the 94th minute, I see O’Hare sprinting to close Murray Wallace down, and we end up giving a foul away.

‘I didn’t think it warranted a second yellow card, I think that was ridiculous. I spoke to [the referee] about it afterwards.

‘You’ve got their goalkeeper taking as long as he wants on goal kicks, [the referee] does nothing about it all game.

‘But that summed it up, you’ve got O’Hare with that little bit of hunger, that bit of desire to run forward and we didn’t show that often enough.’