Sheffield Wednesday must regroup for basement battle

They host bottom club Wycombe tomorrow night and Thompson said: “We’ve got to regroup. You get energised by how you play, and we need to get back again – Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday.”

Gary Rowett felt Millwall’s second-half blitz had been long overdue. They had won just once at home in the Championship but Scott Malone and Ben Thompson scored in quick succession to turn the contest after half-time and Tom Bradshaw added late gloss to the scoreline.

Kenneth Zohore’s penalty had put the hosts level following Callum Paterson’s opener.

Wednesday’s opener came within 10 minutes, Scotland forward Paterson had two stabs from six yards out, with his second turning in Elias Kachunga’s cut back.

Thompson added: “It was a really tough second half against Millwall. We controlled the first but the penalty gave them the encouragement they needed and then in the second half they made life difficult. Joey (Pelupessy) slipped, which was really unfortunate. But I think we were still in the game at half-time.

“They’re direct, and we couldn’t deal with it. We looked leggy in the second half. We have to dust ourselves down and remain positive. There’s a lot still to play for. They played to their strengths but in my time as caretaker we’ve given as good as we’ve got. We’ve got to regroup and go again on Tuesday.

“We do have to learn from it in terms of how the Championship is played, and you have to be able to deal with that. It’s what football is. We don’t get carried away and we don’t get too down.”

Rowett said: “We certainly haven’t seen that (the second half) coming very many times this season and it was a game that we had to make some changes and it was a bit of a gamble.

“I think it was a tight game and there was nothing in it. Sheffield Wednesday were as attritional as us but they got the one break.

“We had actually kicked on a little bit and just started to impose ourselves on the game before the penalty, which changed our whole psychology.

“From there on in it was could we take the chances? (Keiren) Westwood made three brilliant, brilliant saves early on in the second half but after a moment of brilliance from Scott Malone, who has been brilliant for us, it was how many could we score?”

Millwall: Bialkowski, Evans, Hutchinson, Cooper, Romeo; Kieftenbeld (Thompson 46), Leonard (Williams 60), Woods, Malone; Zohore (Bradshaw 79), Bodvarsson (Smith 86). Unused substitutes: Fielding, Jed Wallace, Pearce, Bennett, McNamara.

Sheffield Wednesday: Westwood, Palmer (Shaw 59), Lees, Dunkley; Hutchinson (Urhoghide 73), Penney (Harris 46), Reach, Bannan; Pelupessy, Paterson (Windass 73), Kachunga (Rhodes 59).Unused substitutes: Borner, Green, Brown, Wildsmith.

Referee: G Eltringham (Tyne & Wear).

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