After Rovers sneaked past Charlton Athletic with a hard-fought 2-0 victory at Ewood Park, Rovers boss Tony Mowbray talked about the game with the clubs’ media team regarding how he thought his side had played.
“It was a tough game, I thought they asked a lot of questions of us, but we probably deserved more from the first 45 minutes of the game than we got and I’m not sure that they would have been as adventurous as they were in the closing stages had they not been a goal down. Had we been the team trailing, we would have been pressing for an equaliser, but credit where it’s due to Charlton, because they had a go. We showcased our brilliant resilience and team spirit as well as our togetherness with the crowd as they drove the team on, to keep the clean sheet, but it’s great to finish with a second goal, which in all fairness made the result look a bit unfair on Charlton at 2-0. They showed how good of a team they were and we prepared differently to how we normally do because of that.
“The team have to know that our grit and resilience is there during the days we need it. We’ve got some big tests coming up, and it’ll be difficult to play 4 games in around 12 days at the intensity that we’re asking the lads to play at, so sometimes we might have to change our style by letting the opposition have the ball and by breaking on the counter-attack. As long as we keep learning and developing different ways of winning football matches, we’ll be okay.
“There are lots of ways to win a game. Ideally you want to be the side that’s on the front-foot, that’s asking questions of the opposition and that’s dominating the ball, but sometimes you have to adapt your play and keep men behind the ball. Leicester City demonstrated that by winning the Premier League with a counter-attacking mentality, yet Manchester City look like they’re going to win the league by totally dominating the ball, so there are lots of different ways to win games of football. I think for us, over the course of the season, we have to interchange between being dominant and in control, to letting the opposition dictate the tempo and then try and hit them on the break. It was a bit of everything today I think, the team bought into the idea that they had to be resilient and yet the victory is good for the team as they knew how the game was going to pan out.
“The clean sheets are vital for us, because you can’t win every game 3-2 or 4-2. There are going to be games where you grind out 1-0 results, which we showed earlier on in the season. I’d rather play a high-pressing game, be on the front-foot and play forwards quicker, but when you play against good sides, you have to adapt.”
The gaffer was asked to comment on the performance of David Raya, who added to his tally of clean sheets, making it 8 for the season.
“He was outstanding today, that’s what they get paid for, to save shots and keep the ball out of the net. We played against a decent team, but I can only think of two, what I would call, ‘proper’ saves, and then some routine saves and catches when we might have been under pressure. I also thought his distribution was great today.
“I think Danny’s (Graham) goal was just a reward for the team’s effort. I think we would have attacked the same had we been a goal down. I remember last season’s games here against Derby and Wigan where we were hanging onto 1-0 leads which we saw to the end, and today they overcommitted men forward and played man for man in the defence which you must do, and then we broke away and scored a second goal to finish the match, but they’re a decent team as they’ve shown, which is why they’re in the top six.”
