After his side’s 2-2 draw against Nottingham Forest on Saturday, a visibly annoyed Tony Mowbray released his frustrations to the clubs’ media team, as he talked about, what he believed to be, a poor standard of refereeing, as his side conceded 2 penalties – one missed, the other scored – which all came between Rovers’ good play and goals.
“We’re left frustrated again after working extremely hard to get ourselves ahead, from the position that we found ourselves in. Their first goal was a really good one, in fairness. They broke away against our pressure and finished off a lovely move that contained some one-touch passing. They’ve got some high-quality footballers, yet we got ourselves ahead through sheer hard-work and determination, but we feel that we’ve been punished with their second penalty.
“Not only are we frustrated about their second penalty, but we’re annoyed about not getting one ourselves, after Bradley Dack was clearly hauled down in their penalty area. I have to be careful about what I say, but the referee today had a really bad game, today. Maybe that’s just my raw emotions talking, with it only being 10 minutes after the match, but that’s what we all thought in the dressing room.
“I thought today’s game had 2 decent teams going at each other and for us to take the lead as we did, after going behind, showed the character and personality that we have within our ranks. All in all, we feel like we’ve been pegged back by a baffling decision. If there is contact from Jack’s (Rodwell) hanging leg, then it’s certainly not enough for their lad (Joe Lolley), to go down. In comparison to that, Bradley was practically manhandled to the ground, and the referee just waved ‘play on’. Unfortunately, as professionals, we have to take the official’s decisions even though we should have come away with 3 points, rather than just the 1. We have to now forget about today and alter our focus to Wednesday night at home to Sheffield United.
“Putting all of the senseless decisions by the official to one side, there were some great goals today, some combative football and some intense play. This game was a great advert for both the Championship and for us as a team. We’ve come up against a side that have promotion ambitions and have given them a bit of trouble, that, in my mind, shows that we can compete with the best in this division.
“Adam (Armstrong) showed his quality and his class today with the goal he scored. Even if he didn’t mean it, I’m sure he’ll be in here, telling you that he did mean it, because he’s a striker whose natural instincts are to put the ball in the back of the net. Adam will be disappointed that I switched him over onto the right-hand side after Joe Rothwell came on, but I needed Joe Rothwell on my side of the pitch in order to get messages across to him.
“Bradley and Danny (Graham) have a good connection, both on and off the pitch, and they’re good pals. It’s very nice to see them working as hard as they have done for the team, because, with respect to Danny Graham although he’s at 32 years of age, he’s running around like a 22-year old, and bullying defenders with his physicality, which gives us the platform to play higher up the pitch. If he wasn’t looking after himself and doing the right things both on and off the pitch, he wouldn’t be around and wouldn’t be able to put in the effort he has been doing, which is a credit to how Danny has kept himself in shape. I think, with his age, he won’t be able to play 3 games a week, which will give opponents a big sigh of relief when he’s not playing, however, as we saw against Derby, he was vital for how we managed to stay in the game. In my view, he needs to keep doing what he’s doing at the moment in order to stay around the team.
“We’ve let a through wins slip through our fingers this season. You turn the draws against Ipswich Town, Aston Villa and now Nottingham Forest, into wins, and we could have been galivanting away at the top of the table! We just need to concentrate on what we’re doing at the moment, which is making life difficult for every opponent that we come up against. We’ve gone 25 league games unbeaten at home, but I think Wednesday night against Sheffield United will be our biggest challenge, because they have found a set way of playing which involves their drive, desire and determination.”
The manager rounded off his interview by talking about captain Charlie Mulgrew, who, despite returning to training in midweek, following a calf injury, sat out the tie. The boss also provided an update on Ryan Nyambe, who was taken off due to injury.
“Charlie was extremely close to making today’s game. We were debating whether to gamble him and potentially risk a more serious injury developing or letting him sit out in order to fully recover. Ryan was feeling his hamstring around the time he came off. I was a bit annoyed because I didn’t get any word on his injury before I took Paul Downing off. He told me that he was waving towards the bench as Armstrong came on for Downing, but I didn’t see it. Had he stayed on the pitch, he would have gone in at centre-half and we would have switched to a 5 at the back in order to increase the pressure on them. Saying that, I thought Rodwell did well when he came on, despite the issue regarding their second penalty, but he looked assured, fast and strong at the back.”
