Following Rovers’ last gasp turnaround which saw the home side score two goals in the last three minutes, including one in added time, to come back from 1-0 down to win 2-1 against Sheffield Wednesday, Blues boss Tony Mowbray spoke proudly of his side as he reflected on a nerve-wracking game.
“There are great days in football and today is certainly one of them. I’ve been in football for 40 years, since leaving school and you should cherish days like today, I think. I’m proud that the team dug in and fought hard against a good side. Sheffield Wednesday are a side that could have finished the day 2nd, 3rd or 4th had they won today, so it’s great to come away with the victory. I told the lads at half-time that we had to improve in the second-half, but we looked like we could score on the break as they were playing the game in our half more than we would have liked, and I wanted us to be a bit more positive in the second-half. I had it in my mind that I wanted to bring Danny (Graham) on, after an hour and play forwards more and I was really proud of the way the lads kept going after having multiple shots blocked and penalty appeals turned down whilst their ‘keeper kept making great saves before they then went down the other end and scored, which deflated us a bit.
“We were in a bit of a spell where we hadn’t won in our last six and it’s a difficult spell to get out of. Every game in this division is tough, and we’re at Elland Road next week(!) With that in mind, you just start totting up where you think we’re going to get a win and yet we stand here now having emerged from that slump with that much needed win. The biggest factor the manner of this result shows me is that these players still believe and work hard for each other. I’ve been telling them that, this is their team, not mine, I can pick the team, but then they have to go out together as mates and fight and stick together, which is what they did.
“I think it’s been a while since we’ve come back from behind to win and I think they really deserved it, the way they stuck together was amazing and we had some great individual performances. I thought Tosin (Adarabioyo), although he scored a goal, put in a big performance outside of that. We’ve had some problems recently with the directness of teams and we did a bit of work this week on putting Tosin to the side of attackers and taking pressure off Derrick (Williams) who’s been playing at centre-half recently, and we put Derrick at left-back today because, although he carries a level of physicality, he finds it really tough to deal with big attackers and we told Tosin to focus on their big attackers, without focussing too much on getting challenges in left and right, leaving Ryan (Nyambe) to do that and I thought Tosin competed exceptionally well and won first contact for us on a lot of occasions. People sometimes underestimate the importance of heading the ball back over the halfway line at goal-kicks, but I thought he was magnificent today and he topped off his performance with his goal at the back-stick.
“Joe Rothwell came on and did well. I’ve been telling him that if he doesn’t have a shot, put in a cross in that we score from or create chances, then I can’t play him. (Lewis) Holtby grabbed a goal and an assist against Huddersfield Town in our last home game, that’s why he was playing today. I was delighted for Joe that he threatened the goal today, he had a brilliant glancing header that their ‘keeper saved, and he was involved in a few of the shots and ricochets around their box late on, which was good to see. I’m pleased for all the players really and the fans as well, because it’s been a tough few weeks, so let’s see if we can have a good week of training and go to Elland Road and get something. I’ve been looking at the results after the game, and there’s been some strange results in our league, so who’s to say that, although it’s a tough place to go, that we can’t cause a strange result there next week against Leeds United?
“I’m sure the fans can feel that I and all the staff trust John (Buckley). It’s been hard for him to get a sniff, because when we’ve been trying to win, and not been winning, it’s very difficult to throw a young lad on and expect him to win the game for you, but it was bit of a last resort change because, I was going to put Corry Evans on at 1-0 in order to try and shore up midfield a bit more and then with the disappointment of losing the goal and going behind, it was amazing to think that John came on and got the winner for us.
“I’m just pleased for everyone really because I feel like there’s been a bit of a cloud hanging over the place the last couple of weeks, the team tried really hard against Preston North End, were fantastic for a majority of that game and yet some really poor defending cost us and today I thought they took onboard the messages we gave them throughout the course of the week about ‘being a man’, ‘standing up’, ‘doing their job properly’ and I told them to ‘forget tactics and positional play and go and win some headers and tackles and put their bodies on the line’ which I thought they did today. Sometimes basic man-to-man chats and basic coaching are what’s needed and yet, amongst all of that, we’re trying to be better. I’ve said that from day one and I think it’s right to put the pressure on and to try and say that ‘this is Blackburn Rovers, we should be trying to get to the Premier League as quickly as we can’ and yet, maybe we’re falling a bit short? Particularly with the young players and we’ve had new signings who probably haven’t quite gelled as quickly as we hoped they would and yet the performance levels have been decent. With the 68% possession against Nottingham Forest and 20-odd shots and still drawing 1-1 at home, it felt as if it wasn’t quite happening for us, and today it did. Hopefully that starts a reverse in fortunes, and we can go on and potentially win a game that we don’t deserve to win, somewhere down the line and win the ones that we do deserve to win, and see where that takes us.
“The save from Christian (Walton) at the death there was smashing for us all because had it got to 2-2, we would have all been deflated, even though it was looking like a 0-0 until the 83rd minute when they scored. To take another point, would have been deflating especially on the back of the draws against Nottingham Forest and Huddersfield Town here, because you can’t keep drawing games at home and expect to be up there in the league, you’ve got to win your home games because that’s where you get the majority of your points and you’re putting a lot of pressure on your away games if you’re only drawing your home games. It was great to win today and let’s see if we can find a result next week. I watched Barnsley yesterday, (Friday night), on the TV and to be honest, that won’t be an easy game after the international break, because they’re a ‘tigerish’ team that are fighting for everything, so although we know that every game is tough, the spirit that we’ve got will take us far, I hope.
“I didn’t see the team’s huddle at the end of the game, but I’m delighted they’ve done that because as I’ve said before, this is their team. I pick the team, train them and try to inspire them with words but at the bottom line, this is their team, they’re a group of men who will hopefully be friends in 20-or 30-years’ time. I was a footballer once upon a time and I’ve just had a 30-year reunion with the Middlesbrough team that were like these lads here, young boys going out there, striving to be good and here we are, 30-years on, still mates and still having a laugh with each other. I hope that that is something this team can get to, but they have to achieve something first. Yes, okay, some might say they’ve achieved the promotion from League One, but that doesn’t rank very highly in the records of this football club, but it’s still a level of success and I think, for the team to have the huddle there at the end, it shows the fans that they care and are working hard for their club. It would have been easy, had we lost that 1-0, for people to say, ‘what’s going on’, ‘the players are giving in’, but the players are never going to give in, even when I saw the devastation in our dressing room at Preston. The fact that they’re never going to give up is what gives me the spirit and heart to keep pushing with them, keep working them and keep asking questions of them and today we got the rewards from all of that.
“We have to wait and see to see how big the context of this win will be. I think the bottom line is that we’re finding it difficult to be the team I want us to be. You can see today that Sheffield Wednesday had control of the game and managed to push us back on occasions, causing us to defend for our lives. The best teams don’t do that against Sheffield Wednesday, they push them back and lock them in their half, having shot after shot and then come away with a 2-0 or 3-0 victory. Somewhere down the line, that’s what I want to do to most teams that come to Ewood, but at this moment, we have to keep building and you have wait for your young players like John Buckley, Ryan Nyambe, Lewis Travis and the rest in the under-23s to come through and develop properly.
“I thought Ryan was really good at centre-half today despite being a bit nervous in the first-half being reluctant to pass forward, but in the second-half he hit some great forward passes. Lewis (Travis) was really good today, he was aggressive and, on the front-foot. I’ve left him out for a few games, because he’s been poor with his distribution and was getting caught on the ball and yet, these lads are all learning the game and I’m sure that somewhere down the line, whether I’m here or not to see that through, they’ll be good footballers for this club, but they have to learn from these mistakes and develop. We’re trying to grow this club as a whole and I want to get there really quickly, yet the reality is, is that we have to wait for the likes of Nyambe, Travis, Buckley to really develop into the footballers that we hope they’re going to be.”
