After Rovers suffered their third defeat from their past five games at the hands of Huddersfield Town by a 2-1 scoreline, a frustrated Tony Mowbray reflected on the evening’s events which saw Rovers drop a point in the final seconds of the game.
“It’s very disappointing to lose the game late on. I’m not saying that losing in the final minutes happens every week, but it seems like we’ve been losing tight games every week, at the moment. I thought it was a good game of football, to be honest with two good teams going at it. Huddersfield Town are a good team who are well-coached and they can give you problems with their patterns of play, but I thought we coped with them really well for most of the game, however the nature of the goals we conceded were poor. We had some amazing chances to score that, for some reason aren’t going in at this moment in time. We were probably snatching at one or two chances and then their ‘keeper made an amazing save to deny Adam (Armstrong). We should have been ahead during the break or even inside the first minute because of the quality of the chances we created.
It feels as if nothing is going our way at the moment and yet to draw level so late, we didn’t think we were going to lose it from that point, if anything we were going to go on and win it. Ultimately a lack of concentration is what has cost us. By the time their second went in, we had (John) Buckley in at right-back and (Bradley) Johnson in at centre-half, but I think it was a forward player who’s lost the lad who got the winner, which is very frustrating because he didn’t do his job. It’s difficult to take, but the score’s in the history books and we have to move on.
“The goals we’re conceding of late are very avoidable. The first one tonight, from our perspective, is an absolute joke. Everyone’s got jobs at set-pieces and we spend a lot of time studying opposition set-plays and we go through it with the players. We show our lads the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses on video as well as who they should be picking up, but Huddersfield have a clever corner routine with different runners from short corners and various other patterns, yet the first goal was a classic cross and header into the corner. That’s an unacceptable goal to concede because everyone should know their jobs. We should have two of our biggest men on the zonal space on the six-yard box whilst the others man-mark and yet their lad has nodded in a free header. I don’t think there’s much about our team tonight, other than individuals not concentrating and failing to do their job and that’s really frustrating, because, as I’ve said to them in the dressing room, if the same people are making the same mistakes they’ve find themselves out of the team because, although they do work hard, you can’t be the guy who costs us a goal every week because you’re not doing your job.
“It’s common sense to think that once we draw level, a point is the minimum we should be leaving with, but that didn’t happen. I didn’t think we deserved to lose the game, but 1-1 would have probably been fair because they’re a decent footballing team, but to lose it is very disappointing. Although it seems like we’re coming from behind a lot recently, I can assure people that we aren’t intending to do that(!)
We should have been ahead, like I’ve said, inside the first minute, but we’re lacking concentration at the crucial moments with Sheffield Wednesday’s goal the other day, being a perfect example. It was like ‘Keystone Cops’ at the back for that goal, but with the games coming thick and fast, we’ve been unable to do the necessary work required at Brockhall with the back four and that’s now become even harder because Ryan Nyambe, Daniel Ayala and Tom Trybull all came off injured tonight, so when are we going to be able to do the work required before the next game? I’ve tried to build this team and give them a mentality that we should be getting into the top six at a minimum and yet, I understand the job at hand, because if we don’t finish inside the top six, then this season will be deemed a failure, in my eyes. That’s where I feel I am at the moment. This team has to find consistency and a way of winning games, but it has a soft underbelly at the moment. I’m not saying (Lewis) Travis is the answer, but he brings some fire and some gumption to a team that will not accept defeat to the point where he’d kick his granny to make sure he wins and I think that’s what this group are missing. They’re a talented bunch of lads, they’re okay with the ball and they can create chances and score goals.
“I showed them before the game, that we were tied on goals scored with Bournemouth, that we’ve had the most shots on target in the league and our expected goals (xG) is the highest in the division and yet we’ve got a soft underbelly that’s reared itself tonight and the sooner Lewis gets back, although we’re not a one-man team, he gives us what we’re missing at the moment, I think. He’s probably a week or so away, but he won’t be in contention for Saturday because he still has to play for the under-23s, but he won’t be far away.
“We’re not the only team in the country to suffer from injuries, I think all the teams are finding it tough, because we’re playing so regularly which has seen the demands and intensity increase on the footballers. You’re ultimately trying to balance training and improving your team with the game-time and the injuries, which makes it very hard to find a consistent eleven because you’re constantly fitting people in or playing with new combinations. I don’t want to freeze anybody out, because everyone’s a part of the squad. I keep telling the lads on the fringes that they have to be ready when called upon, because they’ll get a chance to prove themselves when they step in for an injured player, they just have to show that they can do the job required of them and then they’ll receive the plaudits for doing that job well.
“The next game away at Birmingham City is no more important than tonight was, in my opinion, but this one’s gone now. I didn’t see the final score between Birmingham and Derby County, but it looked like they took a real hiding, so they’ll be wanting to put in a reaction at the weekend. We need to be ready for their reaction and we’ll go there to try and win, just as we did coming here, but we’ve not managed to do that tonight for the reasons I’ve already mentioned.”
