After Rovers managed to do the double over Derby County, after the home side won a game from a losing position for only the second time this season, Blues boss Tony Mowbray offered an interesting analysis of his side’s performance which he believed to be jaded, following the 2-1 win.
“The overriding emotion I feel isn’t relief, it’s more disappointment at the standard of our performance, as I’ve told them in the dressing room. Yet, saying that, how many times have I stood here and said, ‘We were good tonight, I’m really proud of the team, but we haven’t won’? It’s nice to win and get the three points, but we didn’t play as well as we’ve shown we’re capable of, throughout the season. Derby are a good football team and probably feel like how we’ve been recently, in that they can play really well, but get beat. I’m happy with the points and although I’ve been saying for weeks that I don’t think we’re in trouble in terms of relegation, I was at a point where I was looking at the bottom and thinking, ‘they’re struggling to win games and need to win four out of five games to get out of trouble’, which I think won’t happen. We have to wait and see what happens. I just want to finish the season well and go to Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday, a team who will be fighting for their lives and show them how good we are and prove that their fight to get out of the bottom, won’t overcome the bravery of our playstyle.
“I don’t think we’ve come back from behind to win a lot this season. It’s harder without the fans driving them on. Whether they are cheering or moaning, it has a real effect on the mentality of the team, but I’m delighted they did that today. I’m happy for the players, that they managed to get a victory, because they’ve worked incredibly hard over the last few months and they haven’t got what their efforts deserved, but tonight, they got a result against the bounce. It was a great set-piece goal, if I’m honest. We do a lot of work on set-plays, but you wouldn’t think so, given that we haven’t scored that many and we’ve conceded quite a few. It’s really pleasing when we can score from a set-play and I thought that, even though Darragh (Lenihan) was absent, we defended them quite well. The young lads we have at the heart of our defence stood up and these games will be invaluable to their career. Hopefully Taylor (Harwood-Bellis) and Jarrad (Branthwaite) will be playing in the Premier League for their parent clubs and they’ll look back on nights like tonight where they had to really dig in and help us over the line and I thought they both did well today.
“Harvey (Elliott) is a wonderful talent. I don’t want to keep eulogising about him, because the statistics and his quality on the ball stand out for all to see. If anything, we can’t get the ball to him enough, but when we do, in and around the box, he can produce quality like he showed today. I did tell him before the game that he has to keep his goal tally ticking along, although he seemingly gets an assist every game, but we’re delighted for him because he needs to keep it ticking along for his own confidence and belief, not that he’s short on that, because he’s a wonderful talent, but I’m delighted for him and you could see his own delight in his celebration.
“I think we should have put the game to bed earlier, to be honest, because we had enough chances in the second-half on the transition. Adam Armstrong had a couple of one-on-ones with their ‘keeper which he saved, but it would have been nice not to get concerned about the final moments of the game. Those moments took me back to when I first arrived, and we were playing Wigan Athletic here and were leading 1-0 and we were hanging on at the end. We’ve got the points today and we now have a couple of days to work before travelling to Hillsborough to face Sheffield Wednesday. Let’s try and finish the season as strong as we can and win the games, if we can.”
