As the Blues prepared to kick-off their Championship return away at Ipswich Town’s Portman Road, manager Tony Mowbray sat down with the club’s media department, for his first interview of the season, prior to returning to his old stomping ground, as he discussed pre-season, Rovers’ return to the second tier, and Saturday’s opponents, now managed by former Shrewsbury Town boss, Paul Hurst.
“We’ve spent all pre-season preparing the players for Saturday and doing what we needed to do in order to get them fit enough for the start of the campaign. It’s been a tough pre-season, one where they’ve all worked really hard and committed themselves to the cause of getting themselves ready in time for 3pm on Saturday. Between now and kick-off, we just have to take our foot off the gas and give them verbal information, in order to make sure the lads aren’t overworked ahead of kick-off. I’ve seen the weather forecast for Saturday, and 30 degrees is being predicted, so it’s going to be a hot tie for both teams, but we’re looking forward to it.
“We, as a group of staff, trust the team to go out there and get a positive result, yet Ipswich Town have appointed a new manager, which installs a new drive into the club. Of course, we know Paul Hurst from last year, and one thing I can attribute to his teams is energy, which is something I’m sure the Ipswich players won’t be lacking in. In addition to that, Paul’s sides are also menaces, in that they play on the front foot, carry a constant goal-threat and don’t allow you a moments rest, which is something we need to be aware of.
“I was watching their friendly against West Ham last week, and they’ve shown that they’ve got some talented lads who can be a threat going forwards. Their new signings such as Ellis Harrison, from Bristol Rovers, who scored at Ewood last year and Gwion Edwards who was a vital cog in the Peterborough United team that played against us last season, are two who we know can potentially cause us a problem, so we have to be wary of their positions on the field and reduce their influence as much as possible. It’s a long trip down, but thankfully, with it being the first game, it’ll be out the way, so hopefully we can go down and get a result that will send the fans home happy.
“The first game of the season is liable to throw up some surprise results due to the adrenaline, concentration and intensity that you get on the opening day. If you look at last season, we lost to Southend United on the opening day, who, with total respect to them, finished a long way off us in the table, but that result was mainly down to their adrenaline, concentration and intensity being higher than ours on the day. We are aiming to start the season on a high, but when you’re playing away from home in the Championship, it’s never going to be an easy game. Despite that, we’re going to try our best to come away from Portman Road with maximum points.”
As the interview entered its closing stages, Mowbray was asked whether, following the success of last season, he had a message for the supporters who had stuck by him and his side during both, the highs and lows, of the 2017-18 campaign.
“I’d tell the supporters to hopefully enjoy the season. They should manage their expectations this year as we are, a team that has just come up from League 1, despite the quality within the side we all know about. We need to aim to replicate the desire, hunger, passion and energy of last season and to play for the name on the front of the shirt. The fans will hopefully accept that and know that we haven’t got Alan Shearer up-front anymore, meaning we need to develop our own players and add some quality to what is already at the club during every transfer window that passes, and that takes time to achieve, whether due to the personal reasons of the player, or due to the deal itself stagnating. We still have some opportunity during this window to add to the group, but, looking at it long-term, we need to try and improve this football club every 6 months in order to try and get back to where we all want to be.”
