After Rovers started 2021 with a 2-0 victory over Birmingham City at St. Andrew’s, gaffer Tony Mowbray admitted he had ‘mixed emotions’ following the game, as the overall performance did not match his expectations, despite it earning the three points. The gaffer also took some time out to pay tribute to the work ethic of the recently returned duo of Bradley Dack and Lewis Travis, who both heavily impacted the game after returning from long injuries, respectively.
“The points were crucial because it’s very difficult to earn points in this league as every team is different and the games are every three days. I think this was out twelfth game in around forty or so days which is a lot of football. It’s also been very tough, physically, for the players especially given the way we’ve been asking them to play since the start of the season. It’s been a physical challenge for this team and on top of the injuries and all the COVID issues we’ve got, it’s been really difficult to get our genuine first-team footballers to play all at the same time, because they’ve been unavailable, so it’s been a really difficult period for us. I’m happy with the points, but not happy with today’s performance. In my opinion, we’ve had some brilliant performances where we’ve managed 20 shots on goal, but failed to win and yet, if you compare those to today, we’ve managed to win the scrappy game which wasn’t a very good watch. The most important thing is the fact we’ve won the points, of course and I’m sure we’ll learn from days like today, so we’ll put those points in the bag and move on.
“The whole team deserves immense credit for the clean sheet, today. Barry Douglas, a natural left-back, was at right-back and Bradley Johnson who’s a central midfielder was at centre-half. They deserve massive credit, for working extremely hard and seeing off a clean sheet, as do the midfielders ahead of them. I’ve got mixed emotions after that, because our performance levels were nowhere near where they need to be if we want to make it into the top six, and yet that performance got us three points. That’s ultimately what we work for, so we’ll move on knowing that we can and should improve.
“I’ve been a part of Brad’s journey with his injury. I haven’t been there when he’s been putting in the hours in the gym on his own with the medical department, but what I do know is that, when you’re injured, football isn’t very enjoyable because you’re mostly on your own trying to get back fit in the gym or the medical room. Bradley deserves a lot of credit for the sweat and tears he’s been through and for him to score a goal is amazing for him, the team and the fans. However, we know he’s got that quality and technique. I think he’s finding it really difficult to get up to the speed of the game, because, honestly, had he not scored I would have been pointing out how ineffective he was for the 30 or so minutes he played in. This team is one that are now playing with a lot more energy, drive and front-foot performance levels than the one Bradley left behind, so he needs to continue putting in the work and getting the game time that will help him get back up to speed. It’s going to take him quite a while to do that, but he’ll be given every opportunity to do that. I’ve just said to the players in the dressing room, that I’m going to give those who have played during this period, some time off, yet the likes of Bradley and Lewis (Travis) won’t get that time off because they need to get themselves back up to speed and match fit. It’s all about getting a balance, because you want some consistency with your group because you don’t want some in training and others off resting, but I feel like it’s important to do that, so that these key players can get up to speed, as quickly as possible. They’ll probably be given a runout next week in the FA Cup in order to get as many minutes out of them.
“Even though he’s not at 100%, that’s the quality that Bradley can bring to a team. There have been many times over the past year where I’ve stood here after dropping points and said, ‘we’ve missed Dack’. Bradley has the ability to score a goal out of nothing, because he has a technical ability that is way above the rest of the players. That’s not a slight on the group, but Dack just has amazing technique. You can see it in training every day, he can finish with either foot, chop the ball back, sit people on their backsides, roll it in the bottom corner, bend it in the top corner and lay off disguised passes among other things. He can play high quality football, but he just needs to get up to speed with the team in order to help impact the side during the second-half of the season.
“(Lewis) Travis wasn’t supposed to play today, but his eagerness swayed me. He phoned me up at the weekend when I was at home with my family and he told me he felt ready to play. I then spoke with my medical and sport scientist department and they were all shaking their heads saying ‘No, no, no, he can’t play.’, then on Monday, I came in and he was knocking on my office door saying he was ready to play. So I took the last performance into context, where I told the team that they had a soft underbelly in my opinion, despite it being a good game against Huddersfield Town where two good footballing sides went head-to-head, but we ended up losing a game we never should have lost. My decision was made, about Travis, after that game, even though he’s been telling me he was ready. I watched a running session the other day, where another member of the squad left Travis behind, and nobody ever leaves him behind in those sessions. That told me, he wasn’t ready physically, yet I felt as if our team lacked the passion that he brings to football matches and I was trying to get as much out of him as I could today, without putting him in danger or injuring him further, because that would be the worst case scenario. I’m delighted he got an hour or so under his belt, helped us keep a clean sheet and did what he does, he won tackles, won 50/50s, never came off second best in anything and that’s important because that’s probably something we’ve been missing for a long time.
“(Jacob) Davenport was our best player today. I’ve just told him that in the dressing room, not just to pick him up as a young lad and give him a bit of confidence, but I thought he was our best player. He was crisp, he was sharp, he was snapping into tackles and he played like a proper midfielder today. Jacob now needs to use that as his benchmark in order to consistently reproduce these types of performances in order to make life difficult for our other midfielders. I think he’s lost a bit of weight as his diet has been changed, but I think he looks lean, fast, mobile and for a nimble lad and he’s always been good on the ball. I thought he was excellent for us and he’ll be given further opportunities for him to prove that that’s his level.
“We’ve just hit the halfway mark in the league campaign, so there’s a long way to go, but I think we’re below where we should be points-wise and I think there’ve been a lot of games where we’ve been very good and come away with nothing. That was a very difficult team-talk after the game because, although that wasn’t the level we want to be at performance-wise, we got the win. It’s a difficult balance, because we’ve won playing badly, but lost previously when playing well. It was a difficult chat in there, because we have to play at the level we’ve been playing at when we’ve lost games, but we have to learn to win and I do sometimes think that at times, the human qualities of an individual, the passion, emotion and drive not to get beat, are the deciding factors over whether we win or not and certain individuals in our squad bring that more than others.”
