After Rovers fell to their second consecutive defeat, following their 2-0 loss away at Swansea City on Halloween, Blues boss Tony Mowbray offered his thoughts, to the club’s media team, on what proved to be a tricky afternoon for the Lancashire side.
“We definitely had chances to score a goal or two today, but it didn’t happen for us. I’ve just been saying in the dressing room that I don’t think we’ve conceded a goal from a corner, like their first goal for the last two or so years. A straightforward header from a corner? That’s not something this team have been doing, which compiles today’s frustrations. I don’t stand here and think ‘Oh we’ve been robbed today’, I think it was a really tight game and we’ve come here and played against a team who could match our spirit. I felt really late on in the game, that their spirit was really high and strong and that we couldn’t wrestle everything away from them, because sometimes this year, we’ve been able to dominate teams with the fighting spirit our team has got, and yet I think Swansea deserve credit for matching that spirit. It was so unlike us to concede the goals that we did. Two crosses into the box, two headers, two goals, it’s not like us at all. We haven’t been conceding goals like that for a long, long time. At the other end, chances seemed to come and go, and we couldn’t get on the scoresheet. It would have been interesting if we’d have managed to score because I felt that if we’d have got one at the start of the second-half, we would have gone on and won the game, but it’s not to be, we’ve lost 2-0. There are no excuses. I thought they were a good team with high spirits and good individual talents. We know how they play, I thought we came with a plan to give them problems, but it didn’t happen for us. We have to brush ourselves down and got on with it. Our next two games are at home, so let’s see with we can go and get six points.
“The timing of their second goal was a bit of a blow, given it was so soon after we’d made attacking changes. Yet, I didn’t change the centre-halves! They should have been heading those balls out of the box! We were trying to change the balance and the shape of the team a little bit and trying to get Harvey (Elliott) centrally so he could play a bit deeper to try and affect the game with some forward passes, but I can stand here all day and talk about the balance of the team not being right, but we do miss a lot of key players. The likes of (Lewis) Travis and (Bradley) Johnson are huge misses who are capable of offering us defensive stability that would offer us license to push other midfielders higher up the field and further forward. The balance of the team is not right, and yet we don’t have any players to change that balance at the moment. We’re basically picking the 11 senior players who we had available. We are where we are, and we have to stick together and keep going. I’ve just been telling them in the dressing room that they are capable of winning six on the bounce. We aren’t far away from that fluidity, and yet this defeat is another ‘stab to the heart’. We’ve lost five of the nine games we’ve played, but I know that will change. I’ve said that they have to stick together and ignore criticisms from outside. We have to keep believing and remain positive because eventually the chances we create will go in. Some games, we’ll create fewer chances than what we’re currently creating, and win 1-0, so they have to keep the faith, stick together and stay positive. There’s a lot right with this team, and yet we can’t concede two simple goals, like we have done today.”
Given that Adam Armstrong was withdrawn with over ten minutes of the game remaining, after the forward was nursing an injury throughout the game, the gaffer was asked for an update on the league’s joint-top goalscorer.
“Adam felt a little twinge early on in the game. He felt like it was his glute, but we’ll wait and see how he is. I shouldn’t be here talking about Adam’s fitness. All he has is a twinge, and we have to monitor it and see whether that twinge settles down over the next couple of days or whether it evolves into more of a problem, before Tuesday’s game with Middlesbrough.”
