Rowett salutes 'powerful' Den atmosphere as Millwall hold league leaders

Gary Rowett suggested that Millwall’s vociferous home atmosphere helps give them an edge over their Championship rivals after they held league leaders Burnley to a 1-1 draw at the Den.

Despite falling behind to an Ashley Barnes goal early in the second half, an 85th-minute Tom Bradshaw equaliser sent the crowd into raptures as Millwall moved into the play-off places.

The draw followed on from an impressive home win against second-placed Sheffield United on Saturday, and Rowett believes the Millwall faithful can help ensure a strong end to the season.

“When the players and the fans are aligned, it is a really powerful atmosphere,” he explained. “I’m always excited to turn up for a game at the Den. We’re going to need that throughout the rest of the season to have any chance of making the top six.

“If you look at our home games we’ve lost two all season. I think you’d have to say nobody’s going to come here and take points off us easily.

“We were excellent against Sheffield United, and against Burnley we had to hang in there and show a different side to our game.”

The Millwall boss was particularly pleased that his side managed to continue competing with Vincent Kompany’s men towards the end of a second energy-sapping game in the space of four days.

“To play as we did against Sheffield (United), to use up so much energy, it is always hard to come back and show the same energy, if not even more, against a Burnley side that move the ball so well,” he said.

“We didn’t have quite the same zip as we did in the Sheffield United game, and they play around you so well when you try and press. It felt like hard work from the side line.

“The way we finished the game was what impressed me the most. I thought we were pretty brave in the way that we chased it, and we just about got a reward for that.”

Millwall looked set to end the evening outside of the play-off spots until substitute Bradshaw followed up his weekend hat-trick with an expert late finish.

Rowett revealed post-match that the striker had been struggling with a hamstring problem in the build-up to the game, although he showed few signs of injury as he slotted home his 11th goal of the season.

“He (Bradshaw) would always put himself out there, but he said he would only be at about 80 percent,” Rowett revealed. “At that point I decided not to risk it.

“I probably didn’t want to use him, I almost wanted to leave him today, but of course with the state of the game we wanted to get something out of it.”

He added: “Even I’m not stupid enough to rest a player that scored three goals in the last game.”