After Rovers racked up their biggest win since 2001 – which was a 7-1 home win over West Ham United – which came courtesy of their 5-0 thrashing of Sheffield Wednesday, at Hillsborough, boss Tony Mowbray lavished praise on his players following what was undoubtedly the Blues’ performance of the season, so far.
“I’m pleased for the team because they’ve worked incredibly hard in recent weeks without getting the reward that they’ve deserved. We’ve had some home draws and some away defeats where we’ve probably deserved more than we’ve got, with the games at Nottingham Forest and Birmingham City in the FA Cup being prime examples of that, because we performed to a high standard without getting the result to match. I think generally, if the performance levels are high, you’ve got a chance to win matches and we came here with a positive frame of mind, as the team believed that we were coming here, to Sheffield Wednesday, to do nothing other than win, even though we only beat them in November courtesy of two late goals. I think the big pitch here really suits our team and the way we play. I thought we really dominated the first half-an-hour of the game, even before the sending off. Although it would be easy to say, ‘we only won 5-0 because they went down to 10 men’, I thought our level of control even after the dismissal was good, I thought we restricted their efforts at goal and quietened their vociferous crowd with our dominance.
“I’m delighted for all the players after that sensational display. I thought (Lewis) Holtby did well, (Adam) Armstrong was good and I’m delighted for (Sam) Gallagher after he got the goal, his effort in recent weeks has deserved. (Lewis) Travis put out a lot of fires today, (Stewart) Downing showed his class on the ball whilst the back four and ‘keeper were great at keeping Wednesday’s chances down to a minimum. There were a lot of positives from today, but we mustn’t get carried away. I’ve just told the lads that they must keep their ‘feet on the ground’ because we’ve got 10 days between now and the next game which is at home against Queens Park Rangers, so we need to work hard in order to back this performance up with a home victory. Again, however, that will be a tough game because QPR just beat Leeds United today in the early kick-off. Sheffield Wednesday, however, managed to win at Elland Road last week, yet we beat them today, so here’s hoping that we can build up a run of positive results by beating QPR next time out.
“Holtby being in the six-yard box in order to score his goals is a massive positive for us. I thought the loss of (Bradley) Dack would have been a bridge too far for us in terms of thinking about who was to score our goals. You’d hope at the time of the injury, that Adam would improve his goal ratio further having played down the middle which he has done, but Lewis these past few games has been getting into positions to get shots away, with a few of them coming from the edge of the area and narrowly going over or saved. Today, he pushed on higher up the pitch, got himself into the six-yard box and nicked himself two goals, which given the number of chances we created, should have probably been three or four for him alone. Let’s hope he can keep this form going, but, first and foremost we need to try and keep him fit and keep the different combinations going. Lewis’s goals today were almost ‘Dack-esque’ really, with him poking loose balls home that bounced in and around the six-yard box. I thought Adam was instrumental in both of Holtby’s goals and I thought he deserved a goal for his efforts and assists and I’m delighted that Sam managed to get himself on the scoresheet to round things off. Joe Rankin-Costello and Jacob Davenport did well in their brief cameos today, especially given Davenport’s injuries recently, but I’m delighted Rankin-Costello managed to get himself an assist at the end to show everyone his quality. I thought the whole back four controlled their strike force well today, especially after the introduction of (Atdhe) Nuhiu. We managed to control him as opposed to last season where he made it really difficult for us to deal with him. Overall, there were lots of positive from today, but we need to keep working hard and remain focussed in the build-up to QPR.
“I hope Sam (Gallagher) can build up some consistent goalscoring form heading into the second-half of the season. I think he’s got three or four up to this point? I’m not too sure because I think they took one off him at Preston North End, which went down as an own goal, but let’s hope he can end the season with double figures in the 18 games we have left, which isn’t beyond the realms of possibility for him. He’s an awesome, physical specimen at 6’4”, he’s strong, powerful and capable of knocking people over if they don’t match his attributes. We have to keep confidence high and take things game by game. I’d like to thank all the supporters that came over to support the team today. As I’ve always said, the away support that backs this club is amazing and I’m delighted that they’ve managed to see witness a positive display, rather than the frustrating ones they’ve had in recent weeks. They’ve managed to witness a Blackburn Rovers team scoring goals, playing on the front-foot, creating chances and I’m delighted for them all.
“We have to hope that this kickstarts a positive run for us. I was telling the players beforehand that if they win any away game, they’re capable of starting a run because you’ve invariably got a home game coming up in the next fixture. We have to believe that we’ll beat QPR next, even though they’ve got some very good players, as it’s a home game where we’re very tough to play against and we have to turn up and make sure we get the three points.
“We have put a lot of work into Ryan Nyambe. He was like Cafu in the first-half, running up and down that right-wing in-front of me in the dugout! I think Damien Johnson and David Lowe deserve a lot of credit on the work they do after training with Ryan. In his credit, Ryan is a very willing footballer who wants to do the work. If the team finish at midday, for example, Ryan is more often than not still out on the pitch at quarter-to-one still bending balls down the line, heading balls away, training his crossing and developing various parts of his game. He’s got the physical attributes to play in any league at any level, he has the power, physicality and speed to stop people getting past him, he just has to develop the technical side to his game, which will continue over time and then we’ll have really good full-back on our hands.
“Joe (Rankin-Costello) is a wonderful player. He was on the bench today because he’s been the best player in training all week, and that’s out of the senior squad, not just the young players. The energy, power, quality, speed, directness and goal-threat that he brings in training indicates to me that he will be a big player for this club in the coming years. He got the opportunity his hard work has deserved today, and he managed to tally an assist for the last goal that proves his quality. I don’t want to burden the young lad because young players can do really well and then have to sit out because senior players return to fitness, or the games aren’t right for them. John Buckley is a classic case of that. John burst on the scene this year, played a handful of games, got himself a goal and today found himself out of the squad in order to give Rankin-Costello an opportunity. Hopefully I see the day where, Nyambe, Travis, Armstrong, Buckley, Rankin-Costello and Davenport are all consistently playing together in a thriving team.
“We all want to be up cemented in the top six, but we’re not in a bad position with 18 games to go. Wednesday were in the top six before today, and they’ve dropped out with today’s results. The league is played over 46 games, not a handful and we need to find the consistency to push up the table and threaten the top six. We’ve been pretty inconsistent recently as we’ve gone from a really good spell, to an average spell where we didn’t pick up the points we probably deserved. Today, we rectified that by being clinical, which is a learning curve going forwards, in that, we have to be more precise and clinical in-front of goal in order to win games and pick up points. Some people might say ‘we should have saved some of today’s goals for another game’, but overall, it gives the team confidence for future games knowing that they can come away from home and score five.”
