During the aftermath of Rovers’ hard-fought 1-0 victory over local rivals Bolton Wanderers, away at the University of Bolton Stadium, Rovers chief Tony Mowbray spoke to the club’s media team about his side’s performance and how he thought, despite the victory, they could improve.
“I am bothered with how we played, because ultimately, I believe that I am a ‘performance coach’. I’ve tried, over the course of my career, to get my team’s performance levels to be high, because that’s what gets you results over a long period of time. We were way off our normal standard of play today, yet our team spirit got us through. Our desire to keep running and fighting for the ball, was shown today and was also helped by the amazing backing that we received from the fans, who helped the lads get over the line with the 3 points.
“I’ve been congratulating the lads in the dressing room, because sometimes you have to win ugly. Saying that, we have played better in other games and come away with less than we did today. Overall, we have to be better than we were today, which I can almost guarantee we will, however different talents and tests will see us react differently. I think Bolton smothered us a little bit today, they almost marked us, man-to-man and they restricted (Jack) Rodwell on the ball, which put pressure on us. Danny (Graham) wasn’t as effective as he normally is for us, due to the size and physicality of their centre-halves. It was a big decision for me, pre-game, choosing whether to go for Danny or Adam (Armstrong), but I felt Danny’s defensive & physical side on set-plays benefitted us more than Adam would have.
“Ultimately, I’m delighted with everybody because they’ve come here and fought Bolton off, whilst also picking up the 3 points. We need to put the points in the bag and start working during the international break to ready the lads for the visit of Leeds United, in a fortnight.
“I was telling the lads before the game that back-to-back defeats was not an option. It feels like a long, long time since this club has lost 2 league games on the bounce, and I didn’t want that to happen against Bolton. We have a few lads in our dressing room who are ‘real men’. They know what’s right and what’s wrong in life and I rely, at times, on them to pull the rest of the lads through when things aren’t going our way, or we’re under the cosh. We have a good balance in our team between technique and personality, which is something we pride ourselves on.
“I thought both Kasey (Palmer) and Joe (Rothwell) worked extremely hard. I thought Kasey ran his socks off today and to be fair, it’s sometimes good to leave a player out of the starting 11 in order to let him know that he needs to work harder and he needs to help his team defensively, which he did brilliantly today. Rothwell also put in a great shift today and our fans know about his talents going forwards. I want him to find the ball a little bit more and to show everyone how talented he is. It was a big gamble to leave Richie (Smallwood) and Corry (Evans) out today, but they helped us come through at the end when they came on. In my opinion, games are won and lost by the substitutes because they’re the ones who change games, ultimately, Corry and Richie did well to help us get over the line. Adam (Armstrong) is a different type of player, of course, his threat on the counter, when they were pushing forward was something we were looking to use, just in case we had the opportunity to slip him through in the channels.
“I thought Danny (Graham) worked like a trojan today and Bradley (Dack) got his goal, which is enough to satisfy him. Brad also worked really hard, alongside the goal, as he was forced to play out wide for a bit due to their advancing full-backs. Saying all that, however, I’m pleased with every single one of the lads who played today, I’m also pleased for the fans who – as I understand – were charged a lot of money today, but they saw their team win, so I’m sure it was worth it.
“There was a real desire from the lads to earn a clean sheet. I was delighted with their defensive display today. I thought they put their bodies on the line, they blocked, they challenged for headers and they fought for 50/50s. For the record, I thought Bolton were good today, particularly in the second-half. They pushed us back, (Erhun) Oztumer was clever with the pockets of space he picked up, (Josh) Magennis is a handful for anybody and (Yanic) Wildschut is fast and powerful. Bolton have some good players, but I’m sure that, when they come to Ewood, it’ll be a different game, one where we’ve got more of an attacking edge.
“The victory is the main thing we need to focus on. Although I am bothered about the performance, because I want us to play better, I’m not that particularly annoyed because we got the 3 points we came for. Our start to the season has been okay. We’ve already spoken about the fact that we felt as if we should have had more points, but as the season unfolds, we’re going to have difficult days, similarly to Wednesday night’s game against Sheffield United, which we lost. We lost to a team who now find themselves top of the league, which we shouldn’t be embarrassed about at all. Their level is somewhere where I hope we’ll be in a year or so, but we’ve got some catching up to do before we get there. I saw Leeds against Hull City last week and they were really good. The test now for us, is whether we can compete against them in what will no doubt, be a tactical affair. We beat Brentford at home, so the next challenge for us is to see if we can beat Leeds United at home, after the international break.”
