During the build-up to Rovers’ 2nd round tie at home to Crewe Alexandra in the FA Cup, Blues boss Tony Mowbray spoke to the club’s media team about Sunday’s opposition, as well as how Rovers would approach the game, both tactically and personnel wise.
“I think the break from Tuesday to Sunday was good for the players as they came back refreshed. They were very sharp in training yesterday, as if the couple of days rest had done them the world of good. Hopefully we’ve got an energised team, who can continue our rich vein of form to get through to the 3rd round.
“I think it’s important for the players, both physically and mentally, to have a few days off after such a busy spell. I think physically, you need to be wary of them breaking down, because I know these footballers work extremely hard, they train every day and then they must push their bodies to the maximum level on matchdays. The fear is that their bodies breakdown after a stretch of games in quick succession, which would lead to injuries, so we need to try and find the right balance for everyone so that we can reduce the number of injuries, but also perform to the maximum.
“In terms of selection for Sunday, I need to find a balance. With the way our fixtures are, this game falls on the 5th day after Tuesday’s win at Blackpool, then our next game isn’t until next Saturday, so I don’t see any major issue with selection. What I’m wary of is that, when we enter a busy Christmas and New Year schedule, if we need to call upon some of the players who haven’t been regulars, they’ll be ready and not ‘rusty’, in that they haven’t played for 8 or so weeks. This cup game is a chance for some of the lads who haven’t been playing in recent weeks to get some match fitness and hopefully it doesn’t take away from the quality we possess and our ability to win.”
Mowbray was asked about the opposition, and how he would compare Crewe to the side Rovers beat in the last round, Barnet.
“Crewe are in a similar situation to Barnet, in that, they’re towards the bottom end of League Two. They do however, have an experienced forward line with the likes of (Chris) Dagnall and (Chris) Porter, they’re very experienced in the level they’re playing at, as well as having some experience in the levels above. It’s on us to go and play our type of game and ask questions of them, whilst also understanding that they have some experienced players who can give us problems.
“It’s a game that we can look forward to. We need to understand that we can’t just turn up, expect to score loads of goals and win, we need respect their talent. We need to work hard, match their drive and ambition and hopefully, whatever extra quality we possess can come out on top. After assessing the first-half against Barnet, I’d say that we lacked a bit of attacking impetus, which we’ll try and correct in this game, however, we shouldn’t focus on expanding our attacking threat and leaving ourselves with a lack of defensive stability, we need to find the correct balance.
“Ideally, we don’t want to surrender the momentum we currently have. It’ll be good to keep that going and hopefully we can get a victory which will allow us to push on and take that confidence into the next league game. Saying that however, we need to focus and take each game as it comes.”
