Stoke City of England midfielder, John Mikel Obi has earned a lavish reel of praise from an opposing coach, following the former Super Eagles’ captain’s sterling performance against Millwall, megasportsarena.com reports.
Although Mikel could not save his side from losing to their visitors in the English Championship encounter on Monday, Millwall’s coach, Garry Rowett reckoned that the Chelsea legend had done enough to discomfiture his side.
The rain of accolades came from Rowett after Mikel marshaled The Potters’ midfield in a game that saw Mason Bennett’s sixth goal of the season secure Millwall a 2-1 win at Stoke’s home ground on Monday ngiht.
Bennett was the beneficiary of Danny Batth’s slip as he tapped in Jed Wallace’s pass after 71 minutes, though Jacob Brown had initially cancelled out Murray Wallace’s opener at bet365 Stadium.
The Lions’ victory made it a hat-trick of wins on the bounce as they remained within touching distance of the play-offs, but Mikel will console himself with rae acolades from an oppossing gaffer.
Rowett submitted: “I’m really pleased; it’s a difficult place to come. Stoke are not only a very physical side but they’ve got some really good players as well.
“I felt first half they were the better side, we played Jed Wallace around John Obi Mikel thinking that he could run off him and get into good positions, but Mikel’s experience dragged Jed away into areas he didn’t want to be.
“To go in at 1-1 at half-time, I was displeased because were were one up and we conceded a very poor goal but I couldn’t really complain because I could see it coming.
“I thought second half was completely different, we made the change to get an extra midfielder in there and I thought we controlled the game second half and we were the better side, it looked like we had more energy and we moved the ball around.”
