Gary Rowett hails Przemyslaw Placheta’s equaliser as Oxford snatch late point

Oxford boss Gary Rowett saluted Przemyslaw Placheta’s “great finish” after a dramatic 2-2 draw with Millwall at the Kassam Stadium.

Substitute Placheta equalised for the U’s in the sixth minute of stoppage time after the Lions had looked to be heading for a fifth straight win thanks to goals from Thierno Ballo and Jake Cooper.

Cameron Brannagan had earlier levelled for Oxford on the stroke of half time with a brilliant shot on the turn.

“It was quite exciting really and a nice feeling to get something out of the game late on – I felt we just about deserved it,” Rowett said.

“If you’re Millwall and you’re 2-1 up in the 96th minute, of course you’re going to be disappointed if you don’t get all three points.

“I thought they started the game slightly better than us. They were tough conditions for both teams.

“Their second goal was a poor goal from us and then it was a question of whether we could get something out of the game. And what I would say is that this group will keep going, keep pressuring, keep trying – sometimes we lack a bit of quality and composure but we kept fighting and it was a great finish from Pzemy.

“Moments earlier it looked like Cameron Brannagan might have scored one of his trademark free-kicks – it was a great save – and then the ball just drops to Pzemy moments later and you’re just hoping for a bit of quality and he struck it really well, bottom corner. It was nice to get a point out of it.

“When you’re a substitute you need to impact the game – and it was good to see one of them do it. You could see from our reaction how pleasing it was to get something out of the game that late on.

“There wasn’t a lot to separate the teams, a draw would have been a fair overall result, but of course they’ll feel a little bit aggrieved.”

Millwall manager Alex Neil said the lateness of Placheta’s equaliser made it feel like a defeat rather than a draw.

He said: “It’s a bit of a sickener for us because I thought we deserved to win. It feels like a defeat.

“We did more than enough to win the game. I thought we were the more atttacking side and controlled a lot of the game.

“After we took a deserved lead in the second half I thought we looked really, really comfortable.

“Oxford have a great knack of staying in games and they have a good opportunity of picking up points because of that. Gary (Rowett) has done that for years at this level – he knows how to get points in games in this league.

“So it was a kick in the teeth for us, a sore one…. we just need to dust ourselves down and get on with the next one.”