After his side let their lead slip in the second-half, which ultimately saw them come out on the wrong side of a 3-1 scoreline, Rovers boss Tony Mowbray addressed the media by summarising his thoughts on the Tuesday night tie.
“I thought we were good for long spells tonight and controlled the game after we got ourselves ahead. We needed the second goal which would have increased the gap between both sides and we talked about trying to achieve that at half-time. We said that we needed to start fast and get the second goal and yet, in the second-half, the quality within their ranks shone through. They’re a side who were in the Premier League last year, and we felt that, because the longer it went on, the more stretched the game got, which ultimately gave us problems.
“They scored 2 goals in quick succession. Their first was a really good strike which, unfortunately for David (Raya), he could do nothing about as it hit him, after rebounding off the post and trickled over the line. I’ve watched it back, and I don’t think we did anything particularly wrong from a defensive perspective, so I think credit has to be given to the lad (Jay Fulton) who hit the shot. The second was a bit more disappointing, but their good movement and quality ultimately gave them the lead. After they went ahead, the game was limited to fine margins, with one example being Bradley’s (Dack) shot, which looked destined to draw us level at 2-2, but was saved by their ‘keeper and from that save, they counter-attacked and went 3-1 up.
“Over the course of my managerial career, whenever I’ve been in a losing situation, I’ve always tended to overdramatise my team’s style in order to try and get back into the game and we very nearly achieved that with Bradley’s shot. I thought, even after their third goal went in, we had a couple of great opportunities to score but didn’t take them. We have to take this defeat on the chin, losing is part and parcel of football, so we have to pick ourselves up, get back on the bus and get ready for Saturday at West Bromwich Albion.
“We had put so much effort into the game, that by the second-half, the gap between our back and front lines, was bigger than I would have expected or would have wanted, which gave them more space to play in. I was always fearful that their quality would pick us apart once the gaps had shown. I should have probably changed our system at half-time to combat Swansea City’s strengths. I could feel the game being stretched as the second-half wore on, but in my case, ‘you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t’, as if I make the changes at half-time when we’re leading and we end up losing, people will start questioning why I made the changes when things were going well. In hindsight, however, I should have gone with my gut instinct in becoming a bit more compact, but that’s football for you and that’s why managers suffer so much. The team have done well this season and did well for spells today, but it wasn’t meant to be.
“There is a hint of disappointment that we’re leaving here empty handed, but you need to remember that Swansea have had a lot of upheaval over the summer. Leroy Fer, who came on for the second-half, is a big, powerful, strong man who has the technical ability to play in the Premier League and he gave us a run for our money. I don’t want to stand here and make excuses. We’ve had a long trip down here and it’s an equally long trip back home. We’ll rest tomorrow if we get the chance and regroup on Thursday where we’ll try and assess what went wrong in tonight’s game.
“We’ll also be preparing for West Brom on Thursday and looking at the squad at the moment, I think we’ll have to make changes due to the fatigue of the boys, as they all played both, on Saturday and tonight. We have some niggles and knocks to attend to, including Darragh Lenihan who came off early tonight due to a hip injury, but that’s ultimately why you have a squad full of players. It’s too soon to tell if Darragh’s injury will keep him out for a while, or not.
“Although we’ve got some injuries and knocks in the camp, we can’t make excuses, we have to soldier on and utilise everyone in the squad. This rotation will be a great chance for those who haven’t had as much game time as they would have liked, to show me what they’re capable of. Hopefully we can find a performance on Saturday against West Bromwich Albion, that’ll give us some encouragement going into a double header at home.”
