After Rovers slumped to their eighth league defeat of the season, following their 2-1 defeat away at Elland Road against promotion-chasing Leeds United, Tony Mowbray emerged from the away dressing room emitting feelings frustration towards the match officials, despite praising his team for their attitude, as he spoke to the club’s media team.
“I generally thought that with 20 minutes of the game to go, we’d be able to snatch a point because you could feel the momentum shifting. Whilst they are a good team who are good with the ball and forced us to play a lot of the game out of possession, I felt as if there was another goal coming for us, whether it was going to come from a set-play or something would drop for us, given we were playing a bit more direct with Danny (Graham) up top. In all honesty, we didn’t create any clear-cut chances throughout the game, it wasn’t as if we were sat peppering their goal for the last 20 minutes, but I felt that the nervousness of the crowd would urge us onto score via a set-piece or by something dropping in our favour and yet it didn’t quite happen.
“I said to the lads in the dressing room at the end, that we have to execute what we practice in training, in the real scenarios. It’s alright practicing around the box throughout the week, but we need to find that little bit of quality in order to make the difference on matchdays, because in tight games, we need to make the opposition feel our quality in the final third and we’ve got some talented players who should be able to do that, but today it didn’t quite happen for us in and around their box.
“We’ve said that ‘we’re not far off the top teams’ for several weeks now. Whether that being against Nottingham Forest, a game that we should have won, but we drew. Preston North End was the same, but we lost, despite being the dominant team for most of the game. We’re finding a way to lose games unfortunately and yet we’re in every game, they’re all very close and if they fall our way, there’s a different story on the league table for us.
“I think Leeds got a ‘leg-up’ today with the poor penalty decision. In a high-intensity game that had a lot of challenges around midfield, I think the penalty was out of context with the game and it wasn’t warranted. In-fact, Luke Ayling – (Leeds’ right-back who was brought down for the penalty) – said to one of our players that he was almost embarrassed about the decision, but there you are, what can you do? Ultimately, that’s how football is sometimes and it’s hard to take when you don’t get anything, but we have to deal with another defeat, despite it being incredibly frustrating. I thought that, at 2-0 down, we could have let the game run away with us as has happened on numerous occasions in the past, but that was never the case today, I think. I genuinely felt that we’d snatch an equaliser, but despite not getting one, there are plenty of positives to take from the game. We worked extraordinarily hard today, yet we just lacked that cutting edge in the final third, around their box.
“I definitely felt that our players gave it their all today and fit the saying of ‘stand up and be counted.’ The makeup of the back four now isn’t what it was when we were keeping four clean sheets in six at the start of the season. (Greg) Cunningham isn’t available, (Darragh) Lenihan, who is our main header of the ball, isn’t available and it’s not been easy. I thought the right qualities of the team were there, but we just lacked the craft and guile needed to create clear chances, despite having the likes of (Bradley) Dack and (Lewis) Holtby who should bring that quality and craft. At times, we just couldn’t retain the ball well enough in order to ask the questions of them in the attacking third. I thought Bradley was a thorn in their side today, despite not contributing as much as we would have liked. He used his body well to stay with the ball, which is something we need to work on with other players. Adam (Armstrong) is one who needs to adapt that quality of staying with the ball, because he can’t expect to keep running away from it, bursting in-behind defenders expecting to be played through with one pass every time. Although it looks amazing when he bursts behind people when the ball is played ahead of him, he has to learn to stay with the ball a bit more, at times. That was one of the reasons why I put (John) Buckley on today, he tends to stay with the ball and draw fouls, whilst also sucking opposition players in and having that quality to pop the ball around them, which is what you need to do when you’re trying to break down a defence. We’ll keep working on it. Of course, we’re disappointed and frustrated, but this is a hard place to come and we gave them a decent game today. If it had been 1-1 and we forget about the penalty which, in my opinion wasn’t a penalty, I’d have been stood here saying, ‘coming to Leeds United and getting a point is never a bad thing’, which would then have allowed us to start afresh after the international break.
“I think the fixture congestion in and around Christmas after the upcoming international break won’t be a bad thing for us. This team have got amazing quality and character about them and it shouldn’t be a problem for them to play the games coming over the festive period. We should look forward to the games as they give you a chance, if there are negative results along the way, to bounce back fairly quickly after the bad result and I do feel that we can do that, if negative results occur. I do feel that it’s a ridiculously close league and that’s seen by today’s game. Leeds are a team right at the top of the league, and we more than competed with them in my opinion, as we did with Preston and Sheffield Wednesday. It’s a league of fine margins, and yet we have to find a way to turn the fine margins in our favour, as we did last weekend in the win over Sheffield Wednesday, then we could have been stood here talking about a 2-1 win, rather than a 2-1 defeat from today’s game. There have been enough positives from today, because this is a really tough place to come with around 35,000 people, who do make the difference for their team. It is an intimidating atmosphere to play in for the players, and yet I thought we stood up to that today and let Leeds and their fans know that they’ve been in a tough game.”
