After Rovers were dumped out of the First Round of the Carabao Cup by Lancashire neighbours, Morecambe, Tony Mowbray discussed the game and where he thought Rovers went wrong.
“There were a lot of good things in the first-half. As we’ve mentioned in the past, we need to show more consistency, even within a single game, as well as in a bigger picture. We were very dominant in the first period and yet you have to put teams to the sword by taking your chances, and we didn’t do that and when that happens, you always fear that the opposition are going to get a chance to get themselves back into the game. This has happened to us in this tournament, over the past few years, especially against lower league opponents, because you know something will eventually drop for them and that was the case again tonight. We didn’t play well in the second-half, they matched our formation up, with a five-back and two strikers. I have to commend them on their first goal because it was a fine piece of play, with the cutback and the finish, but the penalty was soft. We have to accept this defeat, put it behind us quickly and move on. The league is now, and has always been our priority, so we have to play with the energy and drive we showed, both on Saturday and in the first-half tonight.
“We fell short of expectations and standards in the second-half, but we can now put this behind us. Of course, we’re disappointed to be out of the competition, but the league games have always been what’s important. I could stand here and say; ‘what a great opportunity we’ve missed by not advancing’, but we’re now going to have a break when a lot of other teams will be managing packed fixture lists. It’s not that big of a deal, really, because Manchester City generally end up winning the League Cup, anyway(!) I’m trying not to be too downbeat, because you never want to lose a game, but that’s been the reality of this competition over the past few years. We need to put this behind us, quickly and even though we’re hugely disappointed to have lost, there was a lot of good stuff on show in the first-half, that should show everybody what a good team we can be, but we do have to be more consistent and more clinical, because the second period wasn’t good enough.
“When the players you’ve got are young, you need to be careful not to criticise or shout at them too much. You have to get the balance right and they need to know where the levels of improvement have to come from, but I thought the first-half was as good as we’ve played for a long time. We were pumping the ball through the lines of the opposition and creating really good opportunities in and around the box. We should have punished them more, but we didn’t. Credit has to be given to Morecambe because they dug in and worked hard, as you expect these lower league teams to do, and they got their rewards at the end.
“These young lads are all learning as they go along. We take the positives and negatives out of each game in the analysis and there will be a lot of good stuff to show them. It’s just frustrating, really, because I’m not sure Morecambe really did enough to win the game. Talking to their manager, (Stephen Robinson), they changed formation, and matched us all over the pitch in order to stop them getting battered and stop people getting on the ball. That swung the momentum of the game in their favour which allowed them to get the goal and although we had some chances to get back into it, it ultimately wasn’t to be. We have to give Morecambe some credit. They stuck at it and ultimately, this turned out to be a great night for them. We’re disappointed, ultimately. We played pretty well during the first-half, but as I’ve said to the team just before this interview, they can’t solely raise their games during the last five minutes; where was that intensity in the 30 minutes that came before it? As a footballer, you can’t drop your tempo or your pace, you have to be relentless against these lower league teams. That’s probably the biggest lesson we’re going to take from today, because a drop in intensity is unacceptable if you want to be relentless and single-minded, in regard to winning matches.”
