Millwall 2-0 Stoke City: Gary Rowett wins first match as Lions boss against former side
- Published
Ben Thompson side foots in from 10 yards to score his first goal of the season.
Gary Rowett celebrated his first game in charge of Millwall with victory over former club Stoke.
Jed Wallace was the chief architect, first creating the opener for Ben Thompson, who swept home on 28 minutes.
He later scored the second himself, smashing home from the spot after being brought down by Badou N'Diaye.
Stoke struggled to create clear-cut chances and boss Nathan Jones now has just five wins in 35 league games in charge of the Potters.
Prior to his appointment as Lions boss on Monday, Rowett had been out of work since being sacked by Stoke on 8 January.
He had not won his first match in charge at any of his four previous clubs, losing openers at Burton Albion and Stoke, and drawing while at Birmingham and Derby.
But he got one over his old employers in his encounter, thanks to a hard-working performance brought to life by the creativity of Wallace.
Before crossing for Thompson to sidefoot home the opener, he had curled a shot narrowly wide as the Lions began on the front foot.
Stoke improved after the break, but for all their possession in Millwall territory, they looked fairly toothless - and their attempts to get back into the game were undone by N'Diaye's clumsy foul.
Millwall manager Gary Rowett said:
"It's certainly a very good start. The intensity and front foot attacking was good, and the team showed they could play a bit with some good movement.
"I don't want to put a ceiling on what we can achieve, with the desire and drive and energy we've got.
"Yesterday we had to tell a few to calm down because they're kicking each other and having arguments and screaming at each other. They want to win games, they want to climb the table quickly.
"We've got a lot of work to do, one game is only one game. We've won it, great, but we've got to build on that."
Stoke City manager Nathan Jones told BBC Radio Stoke:
"We were extremely poor. We were outbattled, outworked and outthought, and didn't do the basics well enough.
"We didn't pass it well enough, we didn't fight, we didn't have enough heart about us, didn't have enough work rate, and that's not something I can say often about this group.
"In the second half, we controlled the game far more than we did first half but the naivety we showed in letting Jed Wallace run from his own half to go past three players to get into our box summed us up today. Not good enough."