During the build-up to Rovers’ first round FA Cup game at home to Barnet, Rovers boss Tony Mowbray told the clubs’ media team how Rovers would be approaching this game as well as what memories he recalled of the FA Cup throughout his life growing up and his career in football.
“I’m happy to be playing at home, happy not to be playing a team in our league but it’s just another game for us really, we have to go and play and hopefully try and get the positive result. For us it’s all about trying to improve the team as we advance into the season and this is the next game along the way, we have to apply ourselves in order to try and win it. We know it’ll be a difficult game, it’ll be a big game for them I’m sure, coming to Ewood, they’ll be highly motivated for it and we have to make sure that we match them.
“I’ve always said that I respect the FA Cup. I grew up watching the FA Cup Final at home with a big buffet on as it was the biggest day in our footballing calendar. Whether we can get to the final is another question in itself, but as I’ve said, our priority has to be in the league in order to try and get out of this division. We shouldn’t jeopardise anything in the cup competitions, yet we want to win the games as they come.
“I have lots of memories of the FA Cup from teams that I’ve watched whilst growing up, but as a player, I don’t think I ever got to the final rounds as I spent most of my playing career at Middlesbrough and we were perennial 5th rounders’, where we kept getting knocked out by Arsenal, but as a manager, I’ve got to the semi-finals at Wembley with West Brom and we played Portsmouth where Harry Redknapp had a strong, expensive team at the time and he went on to win the cup that year. A large part of my career has also been in Scotland and I’ve been to semi-finals and finals as both a player and a manager. Cup competitions are okay, but above all of that, are the aspirations of the club in the league in order to get back into the Championship at the first time of asking. We know how difficult that is, as every team is making life difficult for us, but this is the next game for us where we can improve as a team, despite it being in a different competition.
“It swouldn’t surprise me if we did get to the 5th round and drew Arsenal to be honest, but in fairness it would be nice to progress in this competition into rounds 3 or 4 and see what the draw brings out for you, but let’s see if we can get through rounds 1 and 2 before the big boys come in. What I do know is that Barnet will see this as a big game, we have to use our experienced players and our talent without jeopardising our next league game, so we’ll pick a team that we believe can win this match and hope that we do.
“The mind-set shouldn’t be different for the cup. My job is to try and heighten the intensity that the players are going to have to have for this game. I don’t know what the attendance will be like and whether Barnet will bring a lot of supporters, but I do know that we can’t afford to play in second or third gear and think that we’re going to get a positive result, we have to go and match them and play to the principles of how we play in order to try and get a good result. My job is to make sure that the team show up on the day and make sure that the team don’t become overwhelmed by an opposition full of adrenaline.”
Mowbray was asked whether a win on Saturday would help the team build some positive momentum or create a ‘snowball’ effect which would allow the team to pick up multiple wins in a row in order to boost confidence.
“I think momentum is important in any football club and winning games creates a mentality within the group. I think the lads are fully aware of the expectations on them this year and sometimes team selection can affect performance levels, which I’m hoping doesn’t happen as we move forward in any cup competitions we play in, but it’s not as if we’ve got loads of players to pick from. We’ve got a few injuries and a few suspensions and we’ll pick a team that we think is capable of winning this game. We need to be on the front-foot and test Barnet as they will be doing their all to try and win the game.”
