After witnessing both sides lose a man to red cards in Rovers’ satisfactory 1-1 draw away at Swansea City which saw them extend their unbeaten run to five games, Blues boss Tony Mowbray reflected on a hard-fought away performance which saw Danny Graham notch his 50th league goal for the club.
“I think we can look back at this game as both, ‘a point gained’ and ‘two points dropped’ because if you watch the balance of the game, they’re a very good team on the ball, very possession orientated and talented when in control of the ball. They’re similar to how Brentford are, which our fans would have seen when we played them a few weeks ago. I thought our concentration levels were good tonight and we got ahead early with a brilliant goal from our lads, which stemmed from the high press that we play early on in games and yet with that press, the best teams eventually push you back, which Swansea eventually did.
“I was really disappointed with the set-play we conceded because it was pretty unlike us this year as I think we’ve been pretty good when defending corners and yet, there was a bit of a mismatch between (Bradley) Dack and (André) Ayew and their boy snuck a yard ahead of Dacky and managed to header it in. I thought the overall concentration of the team was good today and their desire to not get beat was very good. The game we had here last year, was pretty similar in that they built-up pressure with their passing and eventually they wore us down.
“I thought Tosin (Adarabioyo) and Darragh (Lenihan) stood up and were counted again today, Ryan (Nyambe) was also good tonight as well, whilst the midfield worked extraordinarily hard. The feelings changed from ‘we’d take a point’ at 11 vs 11 to ‘we can snatch the victory’ at 10 vs 11, after their lad got sent off. The pendulum swung back however with Dacky’s sending off, which we’re disappointed about because we went back to thinking that a point would be a decent enough return, despite us finishing the game in a strong ascending position where we had a few chances right at the death to snatch a winner. It would have been nice to be stood here talking about a 2-1 win that we’d scraped in injury-time, but we’ve gained a well-earned point against a good team, so we now have to turn our focus to Saturday’s game at Bristol City, which we’re looking forward to.
“I’ve watched Bradley Dack’s sending off numerous times and I don’t see how he’s ended up conceding a foul, let alone getting sent off. He’s come into the dressing room and apologised to the team which he didn’t need to do. Anybody who watches Bradley Dack, week in, week out, will know that he uses his body and his hips incredibly well in order to push his backside into people in order to protect the ball and that’s all he done really. He’s backed into their lad, (Matt Grimes), who went over like he’d been shot. I shouldn’t say this, but it felt as if the referee (Mr. Jeremy Simpson) was trying to even things up a bit. I’m sure he wasn’t, but he told Elliott Bennett that he felt that Dack had stepped over the ball and stamped on their guy’s foot on purpose. Having watched it back numerous times, Brad didn’t put his foot over the ball, he just backed in with his backside and their boy ran into him. It was a hugely frustrating moment because, I was confident that in the 10 minutes or so that we had the man advantage, we would take the lead given the pressure we built and the number of chances we had, to go back ahead. It wasn’t to be, ultimately and I thought we did well at 10 vs 10, to survive their barrage during the last quarter of an hour, because they’re a side with lots of quality. We just need to put this behind us, take the positives, the point and the five-game unbeaten streak and move onto Bristol City at Ashton Gate on Saturday.
“We talked in training about playing against these possession-based teams that play with a sitter whose a number six, two number eights and two wide players either side of a centre-forward – (in a 4-3-2-1 system) – because the ball goes wide and the eights run in behind your full-backs before sliding it down the side and crossing towards lots of men arriving in the box. It took a lot of discipline and concentration to nullify Swansea tonight and it’s showing that the hard work they’re putting in on the training ground is paying off. We understand how these teams play and we’ve tried to nullify them, similarly to how we dealt with Brentford a fortnight ago, despite Swansea having a lot more possession than us, we managed to reduce the number of clear chances they had towards our goal.
“You have to accumulate points on the road in order to back up your home games. After Saturday at Bristol City, we’ve got two important back-to-back home games over the festive period against Wigan Athletic and Birmingham City. We have to capitalise on those game and whilst every game is tough in this division and there are no easy opponents, I feel that every home is an opportunity to gain another three points, even though our opponents come to Ewood Park with the intention of making life very difficult for us. I think there’s a real hunger and desire within our dressing room to win games at Ewood and hopefully that can continue.
“Danny (Graham) got his rewards tonight with his milestone. He’s like an ‘iconic figure’ in our dressing room and for the supporters. The players adore Danny and they feel as if we can do better with him in the team and yet, as I’ve said all along, Danny isn’t going to be around forever, he was 34 in the summer and with the evolving demands on the work-rate of centre-forwards in the modern game increasing, he can’t physically cope with playing every game. The days where centre-forwards would stand at the top of the pitch and head balls down are gone. Every game I watch tells me that that’s not the way to win matches as you need mobility up the top end of the pitch. Danny, who with all due respect isn’t very mobile, is a massive personality in our team who also helps with the defensive set-pieces as well as scoring them in at the other end. If a ball drops in the box, he’s one person you are certain will give the goalie, ‘the eyes’ and generally wrap it into the back of the net, it’s Danny, as he did tonight.
“It’s difficult for me to try and express as I’m trying to move the club as a whole, forward and you can’t solely rely on the centre-forward who’s been brilliant for two-and-a-half years at 34-years old. Sam Gallagher’s time has to come, Adam Armstrong’s time has to come, Ben Brereton’s time has to come and so sometimes, Danny, who’s a real team player and a brilliant person in the dressing room, understands that some days he’ll be utilised and needed off the bench in order to come on and change the atmosphere in the stadium or grab a vital goal for us. Ultimately, this is how football is. Danny’s not going to be here at 40, banging goals in, but I’m delighted for him tonight because he’s such a fantastic individual both on and off the pitch and the lads all love him to bits. We now need to keep going, keep focussed on our next game and see how far this run can take us.”
