After Rovers put in a dominant performance, despite leaving Ewood Park with a 1-1 draw against promotion-chasing Swansea City, a pleased Tony Mowbray reflected on his side’s score draw with pride, but regret that they weren’t able to turn one point into three.
“I was very frustrated at half-time that we went in at 1-1. I’ve seen the decision for their penalty and although Sam (Gallagher) does catch their lad (Jay Fulton), I think it was his squeal that won the penalty rather than the contact itself. They were both going for the loose ball and the boy has seen Sam winding up a big clearance, but it wasn’t a foul. It wasn’t as if it was a tackle and Sam’s gone for him, they’ve both gone for the ball. I’m not sure that the referee (Robert Jones) knew what he was doing for most of the night, to be honest. It was frustrating to go in level at the break, because I thought we played well because we created a lot of opportunities to threaten their goal. Over the course of 90 minutes, we did enough to win the match and yet we only got a draw. We have to take this point and turn our attentions to Brentford on Friday, which will be another tough game against a team vying for promotion to the Premier League.
“Everybody knows my thoughts on referees, which is why I sometimes feel the need to sit at the back of the stand, because I feel like my voice, in an empty stadium, can intimidate referees sometimes because I’m questioning what they’re doing and I can’t understand the logic behind not awarding us a penalty when Ben (Brereton) was brought down early on. It was almost as if it was too early for him to make a decision and he’s not a top, top official who’s brave enough to do that, so he’s just waved play on. We’re really frustrated, but I would like to see ex-players who know and understand football and who have played the game become officials. We have to look at our performance levels and think that this team are fighting and working hard in training because there’s so much to be positive and get excited about and yet, I understand that we haven’t won enough games over the past dozen or so. I thought we deserved to win tonight, but we didn’t.
“As a team, we want to build through the lines when we have the ball, which is what we did today and although I want to dominate the ball, we need to have a goal-threat. I don’t want possession for the sake of having possession. I don’t want to keep talking about 60-70% possession and no shots or goals to go with it. I thought we threatened the goal, today and although Swansea tried to build-out from the back, we played on the front-foot and pressed them really well. I think (Tyrhys) Dolan gives us that ability to press the opposition, he never gives in and keeps running which allowed us to win the ball high up the pitch and create chances which I think is what we were doing earlier on in the season and that’s what we’re doing now. The team should just take the positives. I like and enjoy this team, but the sadness is that we dropped all those points over that six-game period. Had we taken all of those, or even 10 of the 18 available, we’d have been up in the playoff picture, yet we didn’t take any, which is frustrating. Were there reasons for that run of form? I think so. Our central defence and midfielder were both ripped apart with injuries and we have to accept that, because of the fine margins in football that sometimes you don’t win games. Nobody battered us, nobody totally outplayed us, we were losing by the odd-goal margin because, in my opinion, we lacked experience in those selections, however now that the experience is filtering back into the squad, results are starting to turn.
“I just said to Bradley (Dack) that he isn’t far away from hitting peak fitness and he said he felt good, which is a positive. I’ve been starting him a bit deeper and pushing him on as we build, which gets him into the box, but I wanted him to build his fitness back up by becoming half-a-midfielder, which meant he had to track back, tackle and get wrapped up in the game and yet, in possession, he has to join in and stick his body in the way, like he does and give it wide so he can get in the box, and I thought he did that really well. He looked as if he enjoyed the game today, not just because he scored, but because he had a few opportunities and was very close to getting another. The way we’re utilising Dack allows us to play an extra forward and have an extra goal-threat on the pitch, yet with total respect to Sam and Ben, although they’ve chipped in with a few recently, they’re not going to get the same numbers as Dack and (Adam) Armstrong. Tyrhys has also thrown his hat into that ring and he has to be considered to start matches for this team. The challenge is to get the balance of when to have them all on the pitch and who to leave out when, depending on the situation. Harvey Elliott is somebody we need to throw into that equation, as well. Some days, we might need Sam to be an aerial threat to the opposition, yet on other days, we might need the magic of Harvey in order to dance round a few defenders or stick one through someone’s legs and slide the forwards in. I think there’s plenty of positivity and optimism for the club, moving forwards, yet it would have been nice to win tonight, just so we could build a bit of momentum ahead of Friday’s game with Brentford who are another really good team and the challenge for us not is to see how we perform against those teams and whether we can maintain that level.
“Tyrhys is like a ‘one-man pressing machine’ when he plays central. Whether the opposition play two or three centre-halves, it doesn’t matter to him because he just keeps running them down and forcing them to play forwards early. He is a wonderful human being, who looks you in the eye and wants to work hard, wants to be involved and part of this club. I need to keep encouraging him and giving him opportunities and yet, when you have the plethora of attacking talent we have at our disposal as I’ve mentioned, Tyrhys has to work really hard as a young boy to make sure he can keep his place in the team.
“I think the future’s bright for John (Buckley). I keep telling him not to get upset when he doesn’t play as much, because his career is only young. He’s learning everyday in training from good players and we know that he’s a very talented boy, that’s why he’s been given a new contract. The future is bright for John and for this club with such a talent. This boy will play in the Premier League in my opinion. Of course, I hope he helps us get there at some stage in the future yet, if not, the phone will eventually start ringing for John. Not this season, or next season or the one after that, but when he’s a regular and plays 40-games a season, he’ll be dancing round people, scoring goals and assisting them. He’s a highly talented individual, but he is a young guy. People mature at different ages and John is still a young boy, who’s working his way into a man’s game. I keep telling him that if he doesn’t get stuck in and do the dirty work, then he won’t play. Sometimes, he overaccentuates that, as he did a few times last season when he got sent off, but he can put his foot in because that’s what he has to do, yet his natural mindset is to dance past people with snake-like upper-body movements where he shimmies around people. Saying that, he’s a very humble guy and we’re all looking forward to him getting more game time, and yet football is about the team functioning, not about giving John games. If, at times, I think that the likes of (Lewis) Travis, (Corry) Evans, (Tom) Trybull or (Lewis) Holtby are more pertinent for this game, meaning John will have to wait his turn and that’s how football is at the moment. Saying that, he’s currently in the team and doing very well.”
