With his side returning to winning ways at Ewood Park, following a hard-fought victory over Leeds United, Tony Mowbray expressed his delight towards his players after they made it back-to-back league wins, following their victory away at Bolton Wanderers prior to the international break.
“I’m very proud of the performance today. It’s a great 3 points to get, but I don’t think we had any more, or any less of the usual effort that we bring to matchdays. I think we produced a similar amount of effort today, as we do every week. The negatives of international breaks, are that we lose a few players, but the positives are that we get a full week, which includes 2-3 full days, to prepare for the next team, which allows you to spend some time with your coaching staff to prepare for the next opposition. As a coaching team, we can theoretically spend 2 weeks studying their games, so we were pretty tuned in about Leeds United.
“Our set-plays were important for us today. We didn’t overly work on the set-pieces, but I have to give credit to, not only the lads who executed it, but to David Lowe and Ben Benson (Rovers’ first team coach and goalkeeping coach), who I’ve delegated the set-pieces to. Set-plays are something, over the last 15 years of my managerial career, are aspects of the game that I delegate to the staff who work alongside me, and the credit for today’s goals goes to David and Ben. They managed to pinpoint that Leeds only have 2 real dominant headers of the ball, whereas we have 3, in Danny (Graham), Darragh (Lenihan) and Charlie (Mulgrew). That identification allowed Danny and Darragh to come through and score on separate occasions, as Charlie occupied their other good header of the ball. It’s all good when it comes off as some weeks, you don’t get the reward for your efforts behind-the-scenes.
“The fine details of the set-pieces are important for days like today, but if the delivery isn’t good, then everything you’ve worked on, is ultimately for nothing. I thought Harrison (Reed) and Craig (Conway) were brilliant on the corners today. Ever since I’ve walked into the football club, I’ve had the dilemma of whether to have Mulgrew on the set-pieces, because of his brilliant left-foot, but then again, he’s 6’4”, which means he’s a nuisance in both boxes. I thought both Reed and Conway showed their quality today with their assists.
“I don’t think today was solely about set-pieces, because we showed glimpses of our quality on the ball. We had some great high intensity play during the first-half and we knew that we’d be coming up against the team who have had the best physical stats throughout the whole division, up to this point. I laid the challenge down to the team and due to their character, they had a really good go and managed to emerge victorious. We could have scored more than 1 in the first-half, but after we got a kick to the stomach, with their goal, the lads regrouped positively at half-time and came out intent on going back in-front.
“I think Darragh is a better header of the ball towards goal than I ever was(!) But ultimately, it doesn’t matter how the goals go in, so long as they do. Barring the goals, we had some great chances to score, none better than Bradley Dack’s attempt in the first-half. I would have put money on Bradley scoring, especially after sitting the last defender down and going 1-on-1 with the ‘keeper, but it wasn’t to be. Saying that, here we are, finishing the early kick-off and with the points in the bag, which is always nice. All the lads are in tomorrow in order to cool down, whilst those who haven’t played, will get themselves ready for Tuesday away at Swansea City.
“The lads, after the game, were buzzing after they managed to keep hold of the lead, both today and in our last game against Bolton Wanderers. There’s a psychological factor that comes with not conceding late goals, especially with how we started the season. It got to the stage where it became a problem and we started asking questions about ourselves, but I’m delighted that the team have got over the barriers of conceding so many late goals, which has ultimately allowed us to get over the line and get some well-earned points.
“David Raya is a fantastic goalkeeper, he’s the type of goalkeeper I like. He’s quick, athletic and agile, however, despite all of that positivity, his kicking lacks consistency, which is something he needs to work on. David is a good goalkeeper, but we’ve also got good players all over the pitch, which is why we don’t win games by accident. We win them due to our hard work, effort and sprinkles of quality that we can produce. I thought Adam (Armstrong) was quality today, especially in the first-half and yet he was out of the team the other week. All of the players need to understand that certain players are needed in certain situations or certain games. I spoke to Kasey (Palmer) and Joe (Rothwell) before, who both didn’t feature today, and I could see their disappointment after being left out of the starting 11, which they have every right to feel. Saying that, however, we’ve still got 2 more massive games this week which they will both, no doubt be featuring in, in some capacity.
“It’s great to get the 3 points so early on in the run of 3 games. In other weeks, we’ve drawn all 3 games and got the same number of points we’ve got from today, so we may as well have won 1 and lost 2, instead of drawing all 3. It’s a great start for the run and we now have to focus on trying to get points against Swansea, then West Brom. We talked (to the players) about rebounding from a defeat, because everyone is going to get beat at one stage or another. The main thing when you lose a game, is to see how you react, which I thought they did brilliantly, both today and against Bolton. Even if we had lost today, I would have been stood here praising the spirit and the camaraderie of the group because they’re all a fantastic bunch of lads who fight for each other, for the fans and for the badge.
“I thought we matched Leeds today, even though they displayed their talent on the ball with their tricks and their silky passing. As I mentioned, they’re one of the best teams in the league in terms of their physicality and their running, yet I thought we matched them and created a lot of chances, especially in the first-half. We asked questions of them, both physically with Danny Graham and with Adam Armstrong’s speed and Bradley Dack’s movement. I thought it was a pretty good performance, yet we had to dig in at times, because they are one of the best teams in the league, as the table suggests.
“We can’t focus on the table at this moment. We know how tough the rest of the week is, as we travel to 2 sides who were playing amongst the country’s elite last year. We need to put the games into perspective and get the balance right between resting and studying the opponents. Swansea – according to some Opta stats I saw – have had the most passes in the league this season, even more than Derby County, who virtually passed us off the park for long spells. We’ll have to be ready to deal with Swansea’s passing ability and try to find a way to counter it. Danny (Graham) and Harrison (Reed) were both suffering with knocks to their back and thigh respectively, so we’ll have to assess them tomorrow as we prepare to get ready for Tuesday night.”
