After watching his side fail to break down a sturdy Stoke City side, who left Ewood Park with the draw they came for, Blues boss Tony Mowbray couldn’t hide his annoyance at a ‘missed opportunity’, as his side failed to move within two points of the playoffs. Additionally, with Rovers back in action on Saturday, the manager also gave a quick preview of the weekend’s home clash against fellow playoff hopefuls. Swansea City.
“It was a frustrating night. It felt like the spell around Christmas we had, where we played Wigan Athletic and Birmingham City at home, back-to-back, after a decent run of away results and we only managed two draws. You have to say that, as a manager, you understand that the teams who are fighting for their lives towards the bottom of the league, are going to set up a certain way in order to make life difficult for you. They’re not going to come and make it a 50/50 game and play expansive football, because if they did, we would have probably won on the transition, due to (Adam) Armstrong’s speed, or the technical footballers we have, who can slide the forwards through. They came and made things difficult for us by clogging it up in-front of goal. They had lads who could head our crosses out of the box and they also kept their lines really tight between their defence and midfield which made it harder for the likes of (Joe) Rothwell and (Stewart) Downing, to play in-between the lines, behind their midfield.
“It was a frustrating night, yet we had to remain very mindful of not getting hit on the counter-attack and losing the game. We kept knocking on the door, but they didn’t let us in. Their game-plan of coming here and making it hard for us to get past them worked for them and I have to say that Michael O’Neill has been a manager for a long time and he’s played against the likes of France and Germany when managing Northern Ireland, so, as Corry (Evans) could testify, he knows exactly how to stop the opposition from scoring and playing.
“Although we tried hard enough, particularly early on, we just couldn’t break them down. I thought we started sharply during the opening 20 minutes, we looked threatening with a few shots at their goal, but things soon petered out. It’s ultimately disappointing because we could have been sitting on the cusp of the playoffs now, with the potential to jump in there on Saturday, but at this moment, we have to know that there’s still a long way to go and we have to continue working hard and keep picking up points in order to see where it takes us.
“There were a few good chances that came our way, yet Jack Butland made some saves that, for other goalkeepers, could have been difficult. He made one down at his near-post from Adam, which forced him to get down quickly, yet he dealt with it easily, as he did with a few of our efforts from outside the box. On a night like tonight, you need something to fall your way. You need something to bounce in off somebody’s backside or for someone to slip or make a mistake that allows a tap-in and then we’re all wheeling away in celebration. One actually fell for Danny Graham at the end there and he just scuffed it wide. I thought it was set up for Danny to come on late on in the game and score with a one touch finish, yet it wasn’t to be. I look at the other results in the league and see that Fulham won with a goal in the 94th minute and Sheffield Wednesday won with a goal in the 95th minute, and think that it would have been nice to be standing here talking about a stoppage time winner for ourselves, but unfortunately, that’s not the case. Stoke came and got the point that they were looking for, but we have to now turn our focus to Saturday against Swansea City.
“Tonight, was a perfect example of, ‘If you can’t win games, you mustn’t lose them.’ We’ve managed to add another good clean sheet to the tally which takes us up to 12 for the season. We’ve improved massively in-terms of clean sheets if you compare it to last season and yet, I didn’t feel that we were massively under threat from Stoke tonight, despite our defensive concentration being good. I thought that we did well to ‘put fires out’ across the pitch and did well in order to defuse their counters at early stages. The whole back four and the goalie worked hard and did the job that we require of them. Of course, a point tonight wasn’t ideal, but we have to keep the confidence high and keep going. Darragh Lenihan’s upcoming suspension, due to having too many yellow cards, isn’t ideal for us because that means we’ll miss him on Saturday and away at Derby County. We’ll see if we can find a way, particularly against Swansea, here, to keep them away from our goal in Darragh’s absence. The suspension is a huge blow. He’s our captain, he’s been a warrior for us and the combination he’s had with (Tosin) Adarabioyo has been really strong and has given us a platform to win games from. That partnership will now be broken, of course, but we need to see if we can get the job done with whoever replaces Darragh.
“I was telling the players before this game that all of the games in this division are tough and that they shouldn’t expect to simply roll Stoke over, despite their position in the table. Swansea are slightly different. They are a team full of young players who play a specific, expansive brand of football that their club demands. When they’re at their best, they can tear you apart, but when they’re not at their best they leave opportunities for you to break away and score. Although we don’t have a lot of time to prepare for Saturday, we’ll do as much as we can to prepare the lads ahead of Saturday.
“Swansea will come here looking for the victory and it’ll be a different game to the one we’ve had tonight. They have some really talented young players and yet the nature of their team and club this season has to set out to try and get three points wherever they play, so we need to be at our maximum. It’ll undoubtedly be a test for our defenders, but due to the way they play, they’ll leave gaps open at the back that we have to capitalise on and exploit. I watched them on the TV recently, when they drew 4-4 at Hull City and that showed me that, although they’re capable of scoring some fantastic goals, they’re also susceptible defensively. Although tonight we were tasked with breaking down a defensive barrier, Saturday will see us come up against a focussed team who are good on the ball, which will challenge us to try and exploit the gaps they leave us. Every game is different and a test. We just have to remain concentrated and focussed on the task at hand.”
