As Rovers prepared themselves for a Monday night clash at home to Bury, in-front of the Sky Sports cameras, which could see Rovers end the day as the League One leaders, Rovers’ manager Tony Mowbray sat down with the clubs’ media team to discuss this possibility, along with the potential threat that an in-form Bury side may hold.
“The long trips (back from Plymouth and Portsmouth) are always nice and easier when you’ve got the three points. It’s always difficult on the way back, if you’ve lost because you’re running over the video of the game and sleeping on the coach is hard because the game runs through your mind, but thankfully we were able to pick up the points against Portsmouth and we could then focus on the next opposition. The players have had a rest since last Tuesday which has given us the opportunity to build into Monday night’s game.
“As a manager, you’re always thinking about formations and personnel. At the start of the campaign, right the way through pre-season, we played a three at the back in the hope that we could control the game. Yet as the season began, we didn’t score as many goals as we did after we switched to a flat back four. The formation a team uses is based on the personnel at hand and the opposition you’re up against. A good asset to have is, is having the ability to play with several systems in order to win games and if you need to change into another system in order to get the points, then so be it.
“For me, I take each game as it comes. I don’t look down the fixture list and target a point in one away game, then a win in the next home game, I go into every game looking to come out with the victory. Every game you play is difficult, the opposition, at times, step their game up when they face us and their style of play becomes different to when I analyse them whilst watching videos of them beforehand. Their intensity levels increase and so does their mentality, but with us being in the situation where we are in the league, we must deal with that. We’ll prepare ourselves to face a team on a high and we’ll look forward to a challenge on Monday night.
“Bury have gone 5 unbeaten I believe and I’ve been watching a few of their games recently. I saw them away at Bradford and they were very good that day, they were very intense and showed the quality that their footballers possess. They passed it around a lot in that game and they reminded me of when Oldham came to Ewood Park. I’ve seen that Bury have got some good players and I think that looking at their position in the table can lead to a false impression about their side. They’ve had a change in manager, which has obviously given them a new impetus, which is evident through the 5 games that they’ve gone unbeaten in which isn’t bad for a team down the bottom of the table. We just have to do our jobs and grind out a result.”
The manager was questioned about potentially seeing Rovers move into the top spot, for the first time this season, which will see Rovers leapfrog Wigan Athletic, if the Blues manage to pick up the three points against Bury.
“I don’t concern myself with what Wigan are like to be honest, all I know is that if we can win our remaining games, we can crank up the pressure on them a bit. They still have 3 games in hand, meaning that they have 9 points up for grabs and the falseness of the table is clear. We can’t affect them until the day we face them, so the important thing for us now is to keep pushing on, in order to win as many games as possible, which will allow us to see ourselves get into the best possible position.”
