Millwall boss delivers verdict on Sunderland defeat and what went wrong for his side

George Honeyman, Tom Bradshaw and Zian Flemming all went close to giving the visitors the lead but couldn't convert, and goals from Amad, Alex Pritchard and Ellis Simms in the second half moved the Black Cats to within one point of their opponents.

Rowett said his side weren't good enough defensively in that period after half time and described Simms' stoppage-time goal as 'an absolute joke' from his team.

"I felt that the first half we were the better side, very, very good," Rowett said.

"Sunderland have those players like Diallo and Pritchard who can get in those little pockets, they caused us one or two problems for a ten to fifteen minute spell and built a bit of momentum but I thought the best chances of the half fell to us. As the away team I was encouraged by what we did.

"What you can't do in this division is give away the first goal easily. You can't allow the home team to get a bit of a gift and that's the disappointment, we had a chance to clear the first goal and they get a little bit fortunate and end up with 2-v-1 in the box, which we should deal with better.

"The second goal, Pritchard just wriggles past two of our players in the box and we've got to work our feet quicker and get closer. I think Longy will be disappointed but he may well have been a bit unsighted. The third goal can only be described as an absolute joke from our perspective. The first goal gave them a lift, their fans a lift and they went with it. That extra confidence allowed him to cause us problems all over the pitch for a 20-minute spell.

"I'm very disappointed with the second half. We've conceded poor goals and they gained confidence from it, when they have that momentum with the technical players they've got behind Simms who is a handful - they're going to cause teams problems."

Rowett echoed Tony Mowbray's praise for Danny Batth, who played a crucial role in ensuring that Millwall's aerial threat didn't lead to a goal.

"We've had about twelve corners today and I think Danny Batth has got his head on about ten of them," Rowett said.

"I don't think we attacked the ball as well as he did to defend it. I think teams are maybe putting extra focus on set pieces [against us]. That was a frustration but we had enough chances in the first half to go a goal up.

"I don't want to take anything away from Sunderland because I think they were excellent after the first goal, but I feel 3-0 maybe flatters them a little bit."Millwall face Wigan Athletic next weekend in what is Kolo Toure's first game in charge of the Latics.