Following Rovers’ disappointing home defeat to AFC Wimbledon, an understandably dejected looking Tony Mowbray spoke to the club’s official media team about the game and where he thought Rovers went wrong.
“We’re left frustrated today, we put a lot of effort into the game and we banged on their door and couldn’t get in. It was a frustrating day for us. Ultimately you can sit here and moan about officials but as I’ve just said to the players in the dressing room, we didn’t have the guile to break them down and score a goal that would have potentially opened the floodgates, we’re disappointed but credit to Wimbledon as they dug in, scored a goal and dug onto it. It’s frustrating as we didn’t have the necessary tools to get something out of the game.
“We lacked the fluency in the first half that we’re used to. I felt that, inside the first five minutes we started very quickly and should have really scored. I think they came, nervous about the environment they were in and we should have capitalised on that. We then allowed them to score, which then gave them something to hang on to, they put men behind the ball, look like a threat on the break at times and yet we created opportunities ourselves. We talked long and hard about the dangers of this game off the back of some great performances and ultimately it’s come to fruition. The result’s really hard to take and we have a tough week in preparation for Shrewsbury who won again today so we have to try and stay within touching distance of the top teams in the division. We have to look forward to the next one.
“The tempo in the second half was much better and yet we couldn’t get through. It’s no solace to us now; we didn’t get the goal we needed which is frustrating. We’ve done a lot of attacking play in training this week in the anticipation of scoring a goal and yet we didn’t manage to do it when it really mattered. Bradley (Dack) claimed that his effort hit the defender; however he’s had a few chances to score with his head inside the six-yard box, which is something he needs to work on. In my opinion they have to be bulging in the back of the net and it’s frustrating that it wasn’t today.”
Mowbray was asked about how damaging this defeat was in terms of how well the side was doing due to the previous run of form they were on in which they had gone 4 consecutive games undefeated for the first time in 10 years.
“I feel today’s result was a tough one to take. We’ve lost three games already, it’s too many and it’s a big frustration that we need to react to. We have to work hard in training and not think that we’re a good team as we need to graft for everything that we get this year and hard work will be the main component which is what we need to get back to and hopefully we can get a positive result next week. The challenge is to win football matches which are what we need to do if we’re going to meet our ambitions and be successful. I thought today was going to be a fantastic opportunity to get another three points. We knew it was going to be tough; Wimbledon never lay down for anybody and yet we lacked that bit of guile that would have got us something out of the game.”
