After Rovers secured their revenge against Mark Warburton’s Queens Park Rangers after beating the Hoops by a 2-1 scoreline, Blues boss Tony Mowbray spoke highly of his players’ application and attitude after they moved within four points of the coveted playoff spots.
“On the back of last Saturday’s big win, it was important not to lose this home game, I think. I’ve always said that, at home, we fancy ourselves against anybody but that doesn’t mean we’ll dominate the ball for the full 90 minutes. We didn’t do that tonight, but I thought we were pretty good with the ball in the first-half, we gambled more than usual and we asked serious questions of their defence, yet saying that, the talent they had within their ranks cut us open a few times. The likes of (Eberechi) Eze, (Ilias) Chair and (Bright) Osayi-Samuel were real threats tonight and have been for them throughout the course of the campaign, shown by the fact they’ve scored the second most goals as a team in the league, this season, behind West Bromwich Albion. So, we came into the game knowing their strengths and we applied ourselves to go after them in the first half, in order to minimise their threat. In the second-half having gone 2-1 up, whilst knowing that Joe Rothwell was going to come off at half-time, we had to make a decision as to whether we were going to replace Joe with a more attacking-minded player in Ben Brereton, or a more defensive-minded player in Elliott Bennett. We chose Elliott in order to give us more defensive stability and the energy to cope with their talents, based on the fact we were leading. Of course, had we been chasing the game, the approach would have been different.
“I think that decision paid dividends, in the end. It’s not nice when you let the opposition have a lot of the ball in the second-half, but I don’t remember them having too many dangerous opportunities which is credit to the team and the centre-halves who saw it out well. I thought the back four did their jobs brilliantly and (Lewis) Travis was a warrior who put himself about to diffuse their attacks. The most important thing is that we got the three points, but the players have to be commended for their display. We have to put these points in the bag and move our focus to Middlesbrough on Saturday.
“We continued a lot of what we executed against Sheffield Wednesday, which was evident as there was enough good football in the first-half. We got (Ryan) Nyambe in down the right a few times and got the ball into (Lewis) Holtby, who spun on his left-foot before playing Nyambe in on the overlap. Ryan has to keep working on his delivery in the final-third, but bar that, I think he’s improved a lot over the past few months. His heading and his positioning defensively have come on leaps and bounds as has his forward passing, but he needs to take it to the next level by picking out the striker in the box or playing the right cut-back towards the edge of the box for a shot. We got in some wonderful positions in the first-half and probably deserved to be more than a goal ahead, but the resilience of the team shone through today in order to get the job done.
“Adam’s (Armstrong) finish was brilliant. Everyone around the squad knows he has that in his locker because he does it every day in training. That’s why we’ve always deployed him off the left when Danny (Graham) and Bradley (Dack) have been in the side, because Adam can provide the assists, as he did last week, and the goals as he showed tonight. You need goals from all areas if you want to be successful over the course of the season. I thought Joe Rothwell, although he didn’t come out for the second period, also showed his quality in the first-half with his two assists, which is something we’ve discussed endlessly with him. If he’s not going to score, then he needs to provide assists with the final ball into the box, or a cutback in order for a teammate to prod it home. It’s just unfortunate that he’s tweaked his hamstring and could be out for a while. I’ve just told the lads that everybody in the squad has to be ready when it comes to games, that’s why you have a squad of players who train as hard as we do, because when you get asked to play from being out in the cold, you need to be ready to give it your all whatever the game. We’ll now go to Middlesbrough in the hope of making life very difficult for them, even without (Joe) Rothwell.
“When Joe puts in these types of performances, you see the value he has to the team. I think he’s growing in stature. I’ve always said that he’s a wonderful footballer, even when I wasn’t playing him, but I think he needed to learn the defensive side of the game in order to feature more in our side. Joe grew up as a boy at Manchester United then ended up at Oxford United where he was their star man who wasn’t tasked with the defensive responsibilities we need from him, as everyone at Oxford worked around him in order to get him the ball, before he burst alive. In this league, he had to learn to run, to track back, to tackle and to play in our shape alongside his attacking talents. We’re delighted with him because he’s added those attributes to his game over the course of the time he’s been here, and we hope that he can get back on the pitch soon and continue his form.
“It’s just a bit disappointing for Joe and us as a team because off the back of Bradley, Corry (Evans) and Greg (Cunningham), Joe’s now going to be out for an extended period which stretches our squad a little bit. We’re still trying really hard in the transfer window to try and get a few new faces over the line and I hope that we can entice a couple of players by the deadline, but we’re not close to confirming anyone as I speak. We have to wait and see, but I’m hopeful we can announce something for the supporters by the deadline, but we have to see what the next few days bring.
“Set-pieces are an aspect of the game that we work really hard on. I delegate them to David Lowe and Ben Benson (first-team coaches) who do a magnificently thorough job, relentlessly researching and watching our opposition to see their strengths and weaknesses, how likely they are to play them short or towards a certain post and how many they send forward or bring back. They spend a lot of time and effort in sorting that out for us and they deserve a lot of credit for helping us at both ends of the pitch on set-plays. It’s not generally been a season where we’ve conceded too many from set-pieces because thanks to David and Ben, the team are brilliantly organised and well drilled and due to their work, it’s great when we score one. Set-pieces are very important in tight games, in a tight league that has a lot of good teams.
“I think Trav’s pretty crucial to our team at the moment. If we’re playing Lewis Holtby and Stewy Downing in midfield, you need Lewis Travis alongside them because he runs two marathons every game, and would probably end up tackling his granny if she was out on the pitch(!) You need to get the balance of ‘soldiers and artists’ right when selecting a team. If we have too many warriors like Travis on the pitch, then we won’t have the fluency required that silky footballers like Holtby and Downing give us. Alongside the technical ability of Holtby and Downing, Travis gives us a ‘trojan-like’ mentality in the middle. You see him before games, he’s always fired-up and can’t way to get started and see if he can outmuscle, out-strength and out-tackle his opposite number, and that mentality is why he’s going to have a great career, I’m sure.
“It’s nice to go into a busy February with some confidence after back-to-back wins. After we went on that good run in late-November, early-December we drew two at home on the bounce then lost a few including the one in the FA Cup, and it felt as if we hadn’t won in ages. The back-to-back wins are good as they just keep us ticking along because we know that we have to win a lot of games between now and the end of the season to get anywhere near the playoffs, but I looked at the results tonight and saw no draws, whereas usually there are quite a few draws down the fixtures. I’m just happy that we got the three points we needed tonight, in order to stay in touch with those above us. We have to now look forward to the weekend and prepare well in order to face what will no doubt be a tough Middlesbrough team who have been on a fantastic run of late and held Tottenham Hotspur to a draw in the FA Cup before losing the away replay. That alone shows how far they’ve come since the first game we played against them. I know what the Riverside is like. It’s a tough place to play as the opposition team because the crowd are so passionate and against a young, athletic, energetic Middlesbrough side. Although we’ll have to be at our maximum if we want to leave there with the victory, we’ll be taking the confidence from this game and the Sheffield Wednesday game into that one, knowing we can score goals against anybody.”
