Prior to Rovers’ second home game of the week, boss Tony Mowbray sat down with the clubs’ media team to discuss the fitness of the players following the 2-0 victory over Rochdale on Boxing Day and how that performance might affect the selection for Saturday’s hosting of Scunthorpe United and the New Year’s Day fixture away at Rotherham United.
“The squad’s looking okay, there are one or two who have caught the virus that’s been going around the club, so we’ll have to see how they manage with it and whether they shake it off. Injury-wise, we haven’t had any problems recently, so we’ll keep training, then see how we’re looking come Saturday and Monday. The plan is to let Dominic Samuel train and see how he gets on, I would imagine that he’d be low on energy levels, what with the virus he had, but we’ll have to see how he gets on over the next few days.
“I think we have to try and achieve our aims and goals for the season, not for the calendar year. Nobody should be getting carried away with where we are in the league, or how well we’re doing, despite us being over halfway through the season, because a lot can change. We must continue to work hard because every game is difficult, the next two games are a real challenge for us, so we need to completely focus on them.
“I’m not surprised with where Scunthorpe are in the league as I think they’re good with the ball and have some good technical players. This is a game we should be looking forward to, despite the quality of the opposition, we should go into it with confidence knowing that we can emerge with a win. Psychologically, beating a fellow promotion rival gives a huge boost to the group’s confidence, additionally, it could be a huge blow to Scunthorpe, which may help us in the long-term. However, they’ll also be thinking the same way. We’ve still got to play all the top teams at home, we should relish those games and try and build a fortress mentality which can make us hard to beat. As well as that, we’ll need the help of all the supporters, with them being our 12th man, as I’ve mentioned before, so all that will help make Ewood, a fortress.
“We’re slowly building the fortress mentality at home. You can’t do it through 10 or so games, it takes a longer process than that, but it’s a work in progress. We have to keep grinding out results and at times win comfortably, but you need to build a mentality and a desire which would go some way in helping achieve the fortress mentality. It’s been important to grind out the wins against the likes of Bristol Rovers, Charlton and Rochdale because we’ve also dropped points against Fleetwood, Wimbledon and Plymouth, who we feel we should be beating. It’s not easy when teams come and make your life difficult. Harry Chapman is a player who we’ve been missing, someone who can just go past players and score a goal, or create a goal-scoring chance, he allows us to open games and create more space. The players have done fantastically well and have dug deep, but we cannot improve on our squad by bringing in some real gamechangers until the window opens.
“I wasn’t hoping that Bradley (Dack) did more than what was expected off him, which was to work hard and put a shift in, which he has been doing tremendously well. He’s contributing to winning and is working really hard, which helps drive his game as he’s naturally talented. He needs to keep working hard and hopefully he and the team gets their rewards. I just hope he can influence every game he takes part in, whether that be through a goal or an assist.”
The manager was then asked whether he had begun his search for reinforcements that he’d like to bring in during the January transfer window.
“I’ve only had conversations with other clubs and managers. The window’s not open yet, so we need to be patient. Nobody wants to let their best players go, but I hope that we can get a few faces in who can, not only, help improve on the quality that we’ve got, but offer an extra depth to our squad, in order to help those who are here. With new signings, it’s important to make it aware that the players currently in the squad need to work even harder to guarantee themselves a place in the squad. I think a game of conversations, negotiations and frustrations is ahead, but we need to wait and see.”
