Gary Rowett hailed a half-fit Tom Bradshaw after he earned a point for play-off hopefuls Millwall in a 1-1 draw with Burnley at the Den.
Ashley Barnes’ second goal in four days gave the Championship leaders the breakthrough shortly after half-time, before Bradshaw swept home in the 85th minute for a dramatic equaliser.
The 30-year-old Welshman has already exceeded his best goal return for the Lions, his hat-trick against Sheffield United taking him to 10 league goals for the season.
And Rowett revealed the striker was close to not appearing at all, after suffering from the rigours of their 3-2 win over second-place Sheffield United on Saturday.
“I didn’t rest him (Bradshaw). Even I’m not stupid enough to rest a player that scored three goals in the previous game,” said Rowett.
“He was injured. I spoke to him yesterday and his ankle was swollen black and blue. He had a tight hamstring, a tight glute.
“He said he thought he’ll be about 80 per cent and at that point I said I’m not going to risk you. It’s not worth it.
“I probably didn’t really want to use him. But with the state of the game, we wanted to get something out of it.
“He takes the goal really well. The keeper doesn’t even have a chance to move. It just shows the confidence you get from scoring a hat-trick.”
Rowett also admitted his coaching staff made an error with the substitutions soon after the goal, accidentally bringing off George Honeyman instead of Murray Wallace to leave the hosts with two left wingers on the pitch.
“There was panic on the bench,” said Rowett. “If you’d have seen me, I was screaming as loud as I could to try to get Aidomo Emakhu over to this side.
“We didn’t manage that so there was a feeling all our hard work could’ve come down because of one mistake, but it happens.”
Vincent Kompany, meanwhile, was philosophical post-match and insisted he and the squad have agreed to remain unemotional regardless of results.
Kompany said: “We discussed this earlier in the season. We are not allowing any emotional rollercoaster. The game’s done. We’ll have a quick review of the game and then we move on.”
And the former Manchester City captain was pleased with his side’s performance against a Millwall side that have only lost twice at home this season.
“Until about five minutes before the end, I felt like this was a good game for us,” said Kompany
“I’m convinced that with the quality of the players we have that on another day we’d score more goals, but credit to Millwall.
“It was tough the whole game, but I can’t say I was surprised.”
