Gary Rowett brushes off penalty claims after Millwall edge Cardiff

Millwall manager Gary Rowett brushed off Cardiff’s calls for a second-half penalty after his side edged the Welsh club 2-1.

The Lions took a while to get going at The Den – they were booed off at the end of a poor first half – and hearts would have been in mouths when Tommy Doyle’s shot appeared to hit Jake Cooper’s arm soon after the restart.

Nothing was given, however, and the hosts improved as the second half wore on before goals from Murray Wallace and Mason Bennett gave them their first win in three games.

They also made it a disappointing return for Cardiff boss Steve Morison, a favourite of the Millwall fans in his two spells with the club as a player, who saw his side’s three-match winning run in the Sky Bet Championship brought to an end.

Rowett said: “I haven’t seen it back, but at the time I couldn’t tell because there was one early on, a Cardiff player, where it’s hit his arm, but it was down by his side.

“I think Coops’ was potentially a bit further away from his body, but I don’t know.

“I’m sure they might feel a little bit aggrieved, but I haven’t seen it back.”

On how his team managed to come out on top thereafter, Rowett said: “Cardiff probably had a five-minute spell where they started to get a little bit of joy and that probably made them come out and open up.

“They maybe felt like they could attack a little bit more and it helped us because it opened the spaces up and it meant the game swung a bit more.

“I thought we then really started to come into it and we scored two good goals.”

The only chance of a first half desperately lacking in incident came when Scott Malone slid through Oliver Burke, with Alex Smithies making a good block in the Cardiff goal.

The Bluebirds were fired up from not having a penalty awarded and Isaak Davies had a shot pushed away by Bartosz Bialkowski before Jordan Hugill headed over from close range.

Millwall then broke the deadlock when Malone’s corner – which was cheaply conceded – was allowed to run through for Wallace to head in.

The goal that proved decisive for the Lions came with eight minutes left, as George Saville hung up a cross for fellow sub Bennett to head from a few yards.

Cardiff could only produce a belated reply, with Joel Bagan turning in Cody Drameh’s deflected cross in the second minute of stoppage time.

Morison said: “It’s a stonewall penalty, end of conversation, but the ref won’t come up here and talk about it.

“Apparently, his hands were in a natural position, so if diving and stopping the ball with your hands is natural then that’s a new one on me, but let’s not dwell on it.

“It was a game too far for us – physically, I think we struggled with the game.

“We lacked that intensity in our press, but I said to the players after that sometimes you have to take something on the chin because it’s just a physical stretch.

“We’ve gone Wednesday-Sunday-Wednesday-Saturday.

“It’s just tough, it’s a lot to ask and when you’re scrapping like we have been, it brings emotional and mental tiredness as well.”