Prior to Rovers’ trip down to the Banks’s Stadium on Saturday, where they are hosted by a Walsall side who are unbeaten in their last four games, Blues’ boss Tony Mowbray – who on Thursday, marked his one-year anniversary at the club – spoke to the clubs’ media team regarding his team, the opposition and the league standings.
“I think every stage of the season is important. We have to try and win games, it’s what football is ultimately about. Whether you win twenty on the bounce at the start, then lose ten on the bounce, it all adds up to the same number and at the moment, we’re trying to achieve the points that would see us finish in the top two, but what that number is, I don’t know. What I do know, is that if we keep accumulating points, we’ll be giving ourselves a really good chance of finishing in the top two. We’ll go to Walsall this weekend and try to get three points.
“I don’t believe that our drive and motivation has been intensified by going to the top of the table, because it’s been here from the start. The message to the players, for a long time has been, ‘just focus on the next game’. We’ve actually enjoyed the fact that we’ve had to claw back the points needed to reach and overtake Wigan and Shrewsbury. We’re now in the firing line and under a different type of pressure, but I’m sure our motivation will remain as high as it’s been throughout the season. The challenge for us now is to try and maintain our position in the league. We have to keep our motivation high and try and make sure that nobody’s beating us or out-working us.”
Mowbray was questioned whether he expected the Walsall game to be a tough game, and whether he believed that the Saddlers would produce a good performance, due to the fact they were playing Blackburn Rovers.
“I think we only played them, three or four weeks ago. They would have learnt a lot from that game, I think. Every team in this division seems to play at their best when they’re against Blackburn Rovers, so I’m expecting the same on Saturday. I know from my conversation with their coach after the reverse fixture, that he was disappointed that his side fell into traps that night and they’ll be desperate to try and get a positive result and with us going there at the top of the table, it’ll only intensify the game more for their supporters. The fact that both of our next away games are sold out is a tremendous effort by our supporters and they’ve been brilliant ever since I walked through the door.
“On the injury front, Craig Conway is the only loss for us as he’s felt a mild tweak in his hamstring which will see him out of action for a couple of games. Apart from that, Marcus Antonsson got a run-out on Monday and he looked positive as he was always looking to run in behind and cause chaos. We’ve got good strength in depth and if, for whatever reason, things aren’t working for us, we can bring on a couple of substitutes and change the direction of our game to try and find an opening.”
