In the aftermath of Rovers’ 3-1 home defeat at home to Doncaster Rovers, Tony Mowbray spoke in his post-match interview in regards to where he believed Rovers went wrong throughout the game and how he intended to bounce back from this defeat.
“I don’t want to make any excuses, we gave some terrible goals away, we were frustrated with the first half as we had one or two really good opportunities to score a goal and give ourselves the chance to play how we want to, by controlling the ball and wait for teams to push on and then breakaway and score again.”
The boss also discussed the slow start to the second half which allowed Doncaster to open the scoring off the back of an Elliot Ward mistake. “We shot ourselves in the foot, right at the start of the second half with the individual error that cost us a goal and after the penalty the game ran away from us.
“It’s not a day for anything other than to feel the frustration and disappointment of the supporters who have had to deal with this for a long time. We have to stick together and work hard on the training ground as well as find a way that’s going to give us a better chance to win football matches.”
Mowbray also hinted at his disappointment with the performance he was shown today by his players but insisted that they would do their best to overcome this poor patch of form. “We never got on top of the game. We worked on Doncaster and their narrow style of play in which they use a diamond in midfield. They have some good footballers who will at times have the ball and they use a number ten, who is hard to get hold of.
“We started the game hoping we could get on top and it never really happened, especially in the first half in which we had a 3v1 chance that we never took the right pass for. It was a pretty dull first half I have to say.
“As I say, the second half ran away from us after conceding such an early goal and we put some attacking players on as we didn’t look like we were going to concede a goal from what I saw in the first half and yet when you go 1-0 down you need to make changes to press your team on. Full credit to Doncaster, they got away a few times and got a penalty to make it 2-0 and then a mistake from us gifted them a third. Despite the three errors, it is what it is we have to put it behind us very quickly, we have to acknowledge everyone’s frustrations especially as we let the supporters down who came to the game today with high hopes.”
The 53-year old rounded up the interview emphasising the importance of the players sticking together and believing in their abilities in order to break out of the poor run of form. “I think what’s important is that the group sticks together, put the game behind us and get ready for the next one through our intense preparation methods. You work all week in the hope that the preparation will be enough to go out and win football matches and obviously that didn’t happen for us today. The dressing room is what the fans would expect it to be, disappointed and frustrated but all we can do is get back to work and see if we can put it right.”
