Millwall boss Gary Rowett has described Saturday's 1-0 victory over play-off rivals Preston as the best away performance during his time at the Lions' helm.

The South London side sealed three precious points following Shaun Hutchinson's 78th-minute winner at Deepdale, with this seeing Millwall climb to within four points of the play-off zone following a run of four games without a win.

The Lions are now sitting 10th in the Championship table as they prepare for their clash with Wigan at the DW Stadium, and Rowett was full of praise for his side's display against a promotion-chasing Preston side who have impressed this term.

Speaking to London News Online, Rowett has pinpointed Saturday's performance as their best display on the road as a result of the way they controlled the game, but he stopped short of labelling it as t best away win under his management.

“It is difficult to put them in a list because Preston was probably our best overall performance but Swansea was such an important win,” Rowett said.

“Bristol City was a very good performance. But Preston is up there because we created quite a lot of opportunities and had quite a lot of control of the game.

We controlled the ball really, really well in the last half an hour and limited them to fleeting moments – that’s very difficult to do at a place like that."

The 1-0 win at Deepdale represented Millwall's fourth success on the road this campaign, with each of these victories having come since Rowett's appointment at The Den.

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The Verdict

Millwall were in desperate need of a victory heading into their clash with play-off rivals Preston, and Rowett will have been delighted with the manner of his side's 1-0 win which puts them back into top-six contention.

A difficult run of matches had seen the Lions lose ground in the top-six, but their excellent victory at Deepdale will provide a massive psychological boost heading into the final 13 matches of the campaign.

Rowett's side will now need to replicate this kind of performance on the road during the season's final run-in, but the Lions have already displayed many of the traits that could help get them over the line by the end of the campaign.