Gary Rowett feels his side should have won a crucial penalty in Millwall’s 1-1 draw against playoff chasers Bristol City.

Both managers had complaints about the quality of refereeing in the game, with Rowett highlighting Adam Nagy’s challenge on Jayson Molumby in the final stages of the game.

Rowett said: “The referee doing his job properly would result in a fair result, which for me would be us winning the game.

“But were in a stage of the season where all these moments count massively.

"I think that to be fair to Bristol, they probably should have had a penalty first half, when the ball hits Coops.

“I think it’s more dubious but they possibly would argue they should have had a penalty but for me, Jayson Molumby jumps for the ball, Jayson gets the ball, the player hacks him down in the penalty area.

“The referee said to me afterwards ‘I think they both jumped for the ball’, which was just a cop out of a reason.

“It’s not a reason, its not the real reason, so if you don’t give it, give me a reason why you didn’t feel it was a penalty because it means a lot to us to try and win the game.”

Despite being frustrated with the officials in the draw, Rowett praised his defence, who have
conceded just one shot on target in the last two games.

“We’ve played a back four and a back five, either way we’ve got a strong defensive structure.

"We’ve been really hard to play against.

“We’ve been really resilient, Shaun Hutchinson typified that.

“He was absolutely immense second half, to the point where Diedhiou feels he has to jump towards Hutchinson with his arm.

"It wasn’t a clear elbow, but he’s jumped, and it was a bit reckless.

“I thought Hutch was brilliant.”

Coming into this one, Millwall had scored two less goals than any other side in the division.

Rowett is aware of Millwall’s attacking dearth.

He admitted: “The bit that every team in this division looks for, and it probably costs a bit of money, is that top end of the pitch.

“That’s not a criticism of the players, they’ve worked incredibly hard.

"I see goals in the championship every week, where someone turns, little bit of skill and sticks it in the top corner and wins them the game.

“We’ve got to force our way for those goals rather than find them out of nothing.

“We have to play so, so well to win a game, whereas other teams can get away with no playing so well and come up with a bit of individual brilliance to win them a match.”

“We’ve got really honest players at Millwall, we give it everything we’ve got every game to see if we can hang in there.”