After Rovers saw their eight-game unbeaten run disappear at the hands of Huddersfield Town in the final round of Championship fixtures for 2019, Tony Mowbray cut a frustrated figure after the 2-1 defeat in Yorkshire, as the manager – who was without his seemingly lucky blue and white scarf throughout the afternoon – hinted that his side should have done better to deny the Terriers their goals.
“It’s always disappointing to lose matches and it hasn’t happened to us for a while. I think we were pretty dominant during the opening 20 minutes or so, but then they changed their system and put two up top, went a bit more direct and turned it into a scrappier game than we would have liked. We had to try and adjust and yet I’m more disappointed with the first goal we conceded, rather than the overall play. It’s not like us to concede from set-pieces, particularly on a day where we’ve got (Sam) Gallagher, (Danny) Graham, (Tosin) Adarabioyo, (Darragh) Lenihan and (Bradley) Johnson to name a few, who are all big, strong, powerful players and to concede a goal like that it’s really frustrating and disappointing and it shouldn’t have happened. Today’s game was one that we should not have lost. Had we got a point, we would have been disappointed, but to take nothing is extremely frustrating.
“Huddersfield have been struggling a bit this season and that’s why, if we’d have got a second goal, we would have been in a much stronger position to try and hold on for a win. We had a chance to score a few minutes before we actually did, with the scrap in the box which just needed a toe on it to go in. Maybe today was a day where, the goal instinct of (Bradley) Dack would have seen us go ahead earlier than we did, which would have potentially given us a stronger cushion. I think that had we gone 2-0 up, the home fans would have felt deflated and it would have been a long way back for Huddersfield, but at 1-1, their fans suddenly ignited, and they were shouting for every set-piece and their pressure mounted and the expectation levels on their players rose. I have to applaud their winning goal because their boy (Steve Mounié) has stuck it right into the top corner, but we’re ultimately left disappointed because we’ve let down our big following who came to support us today.
“We didn’t have many chances in the second-half, if I’m honest. It was a frustrating day for us. They didn’t allow us to play after that first 20-minute spell, they were on the front-foot, they pressured us and pushed us back. They had big centre-backs which made it difficult for us to go long into Danny and Sam and I think our best chance came from Tosin’s header at the end, which forced their ‘keeper into a good save. Ultimately it was a scrappy game, which they made into a scrappy game with the way they played. It was a 50/50 game which, on another day, we could have won 2-1, but on this occasion, they got what they wanted from the game. They made the game really scrappy, kept on putting long balls into the box, kept fighting for every knockdown and yet, I don’t necessarily think they deserved to win, but they got a break which, after they’d got the crowd wrapped up in the game, they scored from which gave them the win.
“We need to see who’s available in order to play at the City Ground against Nottingham Forest on New Year’s Day. You can see today, we’re a bit depleted due to the muscle injuries and the fatigue that we’ve built up over the festive period. Of course, we’ve not got Dack, but the likes of (Lewis) Holtby, (Derrick) Williams, (Ryan) Nyambe and (Corry) Evans all weren’t in today’s squad. They all, alongside a few others who I can’t remember off the top of my head, are all feeling the high demands of this time of year, and all the games are catching up with them. We’ve got a few unavailable without specific immediate times set for their returns, but we’ll see how we get on, on Wednesday.
“At this time of year, some players need to fill in and earn their chance to get a prolonged run in the team because the players who would normally play aren’t available due to injury. Looking at someone like Nyambe, he’s broken down due to the tackle he took on Boxing Day, but a strong, fully fit Nyambe doesn’t break down after tackles like that because he deals with them all the time. Ultimately, his fatigued body broke down after that tackle, which is why he’s been out longer than we’d have liked. We need to wait and see whether we can get one or two of them back for Forest and we need to go there with the hope and belief that we can get the win and the three points.
“Our aim this season, is to improve on last campaign and to give ourselves a chance to be around the upper part of the table, rather than constantly looking over our shoulders. It’s not enough for us anymore, just to survive in this league. We’re trying to build a squad and the club, yet we have to be careful that we don’t get ahead of ourselves because we’re not one of the best teams in this division, we need to develop that and to do that we need to buy players who will allow us to come to places like this and have total control for 90 minutes whilst also allowing us to win comfortably. That’s not the case at the moment. We’ve been fighting and scrapping and doing really well whilst putting in one-hundred percent effort, but at times, class players can be the difference between a win and a defeat. Dacky’s obviously a miss to us as he can provide that bit of quality when we need it, yet, how often can you ask the likes of Stewy Downing, who is a class player, to produce those moments of quality on a regular basis, given his age? I don’t know. So, we have to make the most of where we are at this moment and hopefully, we can progress in the upcoming window, so let’s see where that takes us.”
