Following a disappointing 0-0 stalemate at home to relegation-threatened Wigan Athletic, boss Tony Mowbray hinted that the result was ‘secondary’ following the damaging injury to Bradley Dack, which saw the Rovers talisman stretchered off, midway through the second period.
“Bradley’s injury didn’t look good when he was taken off and it doesn’t look good now. He has to go and get it scanned in the hospital, so we’ll get him there as soon as we can. There’s a lot of emotion in that dressing room. He’s quite emotional as an individual, but the players are all quite emotional as well, as they’re seeing how much pain and discomfort, he’s in. We’ll have to see how he is over the next few days and we’ll pass on all the information we get to the fans, but at this moment, it doesn’t look very good.
“I’ve had a quick conversation with him, but he’s a great kid and he loves football, which is why I think he’s upset. He’s foreseeing a period of time where he’s not going to be able to play, which is disappointing for us all. He’s got his partner in the dressing and all the lads are around him, but we have to leave it at that and wait for the scan which will give us definitive information. We will, of course, keep our fingers crossed for him and hope it’s not as serious as we suspect it is, but if it is serious, then he’ll come back stronger. We’ll support him through the process and hopefully he’ll come back better and stronger than he is now.
“My emotions are out for Bradley because he, in my opinion, deserves to test his skills in the Premier League at some stage in his career because he’s so talented, so fun-loving and he just loves football. We’re lucky to have him. He’s the life and soul of training and the lads look up to him for his talent and personality. If there is going to be a loss, then the loss with be for him as an individual, but also for the team, because of the amount of goals and creativity he brings. We have to wait and see ultimately, but on the other side of that coin, we went to Bristol City without Bradley when he was suspended, and we won 2-0 and got a clean sheet. If we have to find a different way of playing or a different player steps up to fill that role then so be it. Lewis Holtby came on and had a few chances and he can’t believe he’s not scored when their ‘keeper (Jamie Jones) made an amazing save down at the near-post. We need to wait and see how Bradley is and hope it’s not as bad as we first feared, before seeing how we deal with his absence.
“I wouldn’t say that the game is irrelevant when something like that happens, but you need to look at the bigger picture of the season. I’m trying not to be too negative with the team after what happened. We weren’t as fluid as we normally are, particularly in the first-half and in the second period the game burst into an ‘end-to-end’ tie, with both sides having some good opportunities. We had some amazing chances, and it would have been nice to be stood here talking about a scrappy 1-0 win, yet it wasn’t to be. You have to give Wigan credit. In my opinion, they’re not a team who will end up dropping out of this division come the end of the season because they’ve got some good players, they’re well-coached and have a fighting spirit. Saying that, I care about us and how we played, not about Wigan. Whilst we have to credit Wigan for stopping our fluidity, we did build some momentum towards the end and create some chances that forced them to defend for their lives. We have to look at the overall picture, put the point in the bag and move onto Birmingham City back here at Ewood Park on Boxing Day, in the hope we can get three points then.
“Today was one of those game where, if we didn’t win, we mustn’t lose it. If you’re looking for positives, we managed another clean sheet, which keeps that tally ticking over. That, particularly without (Tosin) Adarabioyo is good for the team. It’s important that, at home, we feel that we’re tight and we can keep clean sheets which has helped us nick a few 1-0s over the past month or so. We’re obviously disappointed that Tosin wasn’t playing today. He picked up an injury in training a few days ago, but we don’t think it’s bad. He’s got half a chance for being ready for Boxing Day, but if not, he’ll certainly be ready for Huddersfield which is the game after, but we have to wait and see. We have to keep picking teams that will give us a chance for a positive result. The Birmingham game will come around really quickly now, and they obviously will have had two extra days rest over us by then and yet the positive thing for me is that, we’ve already tried different players out and given a few who needed it, a rest, which has allowed others to step up to the mark.
“Corry (Evans), who came off, has got a knock as well. I’m not sure exactly what’s wrong with him at the moment, but I doubt it’s a bad one, I think he’s just taken a kick. Hopefully he’ll be okay, but injuries are part and parcel of the game. It sounds a bit flippant to say that at a time like this, but we have to deal with it. You look at Wigan, they’ve got a wide midfielder in (Kal) Naismith playing as a centre-half, which tells you how stretched they are for defenders. It’ll be a big two days for us. We’ll assess everybody tomorrow and break tonight down before going into Boxing Day looking for the three points.
“All the games are tough in this division, but Birmingham were beaten 3-0 away at Hull City over the weekend, so they’ll be hurting and looking to put it right against us. They’ve got the threat of (Lukas) Jutkiewicz up top, of course, along with some talented young foreign players around him and they’re looking different to the Birmingham of recent years, so we’ll have to be mindful of that. Saying that, it’s another home game and we believe that we can beat anyone at home, so we’ll go into it thinking that we can come out victorious.
“We weren’t very good in the corresponding fixture at Birmingham in the first-half and I’ve gone on record saying that. You can’t play fantastically for 46 games, you’re going to have dips in form here and there and that night was a low point for us. There was a flatness in the first-half about our performance, there was no pressing, intensity or aggression to our game, and it needed to change, which it did at half-time. Since then, we’ve generally been pretty good, so we’ll come in on Boxing Day looking forward to it. It’s the next game for us regardless, so the previous game against them won’t have any influence on this game. They’ll be wanting to come and put right a 3-0 defeat and we’ll come into it hoping to get the victory to give us four points out of a possible six. If we manage to get the win then we can look back at our points tally that’ll keep ticking along and think ‘that wasn’t a bad week’.”
