Following Rovers’ underwhelming 0-0 draw with Gillingham, which saw, 840 Rovers fans travel down to Kent for the second time in just under a month, Tony Mowbray faced the clubs’ media team and discussed the below-par performance as well as the result.
“It was a difficult night for us, we didn’t quite get to the fluency that we normally show, but I have to give Gillingham great credit because they made it difficult to find space in the box due to them having 3 big centre-backs who dealt with everything we threw at them. I never felt that they posed a threat attacking our goal, yet we failed to capitalise on that with a goal of our own. I thought Bradley (Dack) was quiet on his return to Priestfield and it looked as though he wasn’t playing freely, whether that was down to the injury he picked up on Saturday, or the occasion of facing his old side, I don’t know and with total respect to everyone in the squad, when Bradley’s not at his best, it takes away a dynamic from our play.
“We were unable to break them down, despite the possession and on the hour mark, we changed things around by making 3 substitutions with Saturday’s game in mind. Danny Graham, as I’ve touched on before, was playing his 3rd game in the space of a week, so I felt I had to withdraw him for his own sake as he’s had a sore back in recent weeks, but we made the changes and unfortunately couldn’t find a way through.
“Despite our failure to score, we need to take the positives out of this match. A point away from home at a place like Gillingham, which has seen us partake in a long journey, could turn out to be a valuable one, come the end of the season. Saying that however, there are no excuses for the way we performed tonight as we had no fluency and we didn’t finish the game off. It would have been nice to snatch a goal and come away with a 1-0 victory, but that wasn’t to be.
“It was always going to be difficult to win the last remaining 9 games, because we were always going to drop point somewhere down the line, as I’m sure the teams around us will. We just need to take the point, put the game behind us and move onto the next one, which is on Saturday at Bristol Rovers.
“Nobody knows what Wigan and Shrewsbury are going to do in the final few games, which makes it paramount that we look after ourselves and come the end of the season, we could be looking back on this game, delighted that we managed to avoid defeat and come away with a point. Our goal difference with Shrewsbury could be a factor come the season’s end, but of course, every point is crucial, so we have to concentrate, play positive football and try to win all of our remaining games and if we end up losing one due to our positive attacking football, then so be it.”
Mowbray was questioned of whether he was pleased regarding the position Rovers find themselves in, on the table, due to the fact they have their destiny in their own hand and don’t have to rely on other results to sneak over the line.
“I would have taken this position a couple of months ago, yet we’ve got 5 more games left to move off 86 points and try to get the extra 15 available which will see us finish top of the pile. We know we’ve got a good team, so we just have to remain focused, remain positive and go out and play every game as if we’re fighting for our lives to finish the season with the maximum number of points we can.”
