After Rovers extended their undefeated run to three games, following a 1-1 draw away at Luton Town, following the season’s second international break, Blues boss Tony Mowbray reflected on the performances of both, his side – who had to come back from going a goal down – and that of the referee Gavin Ward, who the gaffer was very critical of.
“We’re disappointed and frustrated to only be leaving with a point, because we came here to win. I’d have to say that Luton were decent today. I think they’re growing into the league, after staying up last season and they showed their quality by giving us problems today, by taking away a bit of our fluency. They’re a difficult side to play through and get around and I think their results this season have shown that. I don’t think we should be stood here thinking: ‘Oh we’re playing little Luton, we should be going and battering them’, they’re a decent football team and it proved to be a tough day for us, and yet we still feel we should have gotten all three points today. I said to the team at the end that, it seemed as if our intensity levels lifted after we conceded. As if it meant more to get back into the game, than to go and win it at 0-0. We should be doing that right from the off and then, we can loosen off once we’ve gotten ourselves a 3-0 lead, for example. That’s how we should be playing. Overall, we’re disappointed that we haven’t won it, but we’ll take the point and move on. There are always a lot of draws in this division and a draw on the road is never bad when you win the home game you have before, or after it, which is what we did against Queens Park Rangers, before the international break. We have Preston North End in midweek and it’s never easy facing them, especially at Deepdale. It’s a passionate local derby, even though there will be no fans, so we have to keep focussed, keep training and go again on Tuesday.
“There was only one team that was going to win the game after (Sam) Gallagher’s equaliser. It was one-way traffic in our favour. I’m trying not to talk about the referee (Gavin Ward), because it wasn’t his finest game. He was full of unbelievable decisions, particularly at the end. We’re right on the frontfoot, with chances flying around and the referee was making some baffling calls. Although, I told Joe (Rothwell) that he should have scored his chance, because if we were in training at Brockhall, he would have chipped it over the ‘keeper into an empty net, whereas he’s rushed it a bit today and gave the ‘keeper a save to make. (Ben) Brereton got booked for a dive after running through at the end, but I don’t know how the referee’s come to that conclusion, because the speed that Ben was going at was unbelievable. Adam (Armstrong) was also through, one-on-one with the goalie and somehow the official saw nothing. I don’t want to carry on, but all I’m going to say is that, in my opinion, all the officials had a poor day today and they didn’t help us late on. Saying that, we ultimately need to play like we did during the last 20 minutes, over the course of the whole 90.
“I’m sure everyone in the press area and the people watching at home can hear me screaming at shouting throughout the game, but as I’ve said in the past, I’m trying really hard not to continually shouting at the referees during our matches. I like to think that I’m a pretty fair man, I’m not a biased character. I can see what’s right and what’s wrong on the pitch, but the standard of officiating in this league needs to rise, in my opinion. I’m not sure of the accountability in the EFL for officials, but there were some strange decisions today. I don’t want to make it seem as if I’m making excuses, because that wasn’t the full story. We drew 1-1 away at Luton Town in a really tough, difficult game. That’s what we should take out of this tie. Every game is tough, we just have to recover, keep training and move onto the next one.
“I’m delighted that Sam scored today, because it’s been a tough campaign for him. He’s mainly been out of the team due to the good form of Brereton, Armstrong and (Harvey) Elliott, because that trio have unlocked a lot of teams and we’ve scored a lot of goals with them up top. Sam was also coming back from an injury during the early weeks of the season, so it wasn’t as simple as putting him back in and letting him work his fitness up. He had to wait patiently and make an impact during the brief spells he gets on the pitch as he works himself back properly. By playing 20 or 30 minutes off the bench, it allows him to ask questions of me by sticking the ball in the net and I did feel that today, despite his goal, there were a few opportunities where he wasn’t in the right position to get on the end of the cross, which I felt he could have scored more from. Sam is someone we’ve paid a lot of money for and he has to impact on our team. We all like Sam, both as a person and as a player. He’s probably had a bit of a confidence issue, with him being out of the team and seeing his fellow attackers scoring goals, but he’s grabbed himself two now, this season, in only a handful of appearances and I’m sure there will be a lot more to come from Sam, both appearances and impact.
“Joe (Rankin-Costello), is a real frustration for us, because he’s just picked up his third or fourth hamstring injury since he’s been playing in the first-team. We have to get to the bottom of what his problem is, because we can’t keep having his hamstring break down every time the game gets a bit tough, or we have to push really hard. We have to wait and see what his scan says and we’ll assess his options and our options as a team from there.”
