After Rovers were handed their heaviest home league defeat in the club’s 146-year history, on Wednesday night, Tony Mowbray faced RoversTV to try and offer an explanation behind his side’s embarrassing 7-0 – (Seven-Nil) – defeat to promotion-favourites, Fulham.
“I said in the build-up that Fulham were going to be a tough opponent with 11-men and losing Jan Paul van Hecke didn’t make our task easier. I genuinely felt that we could take them out of their rhythm tonight and give them some problems and yet, we started the game by giving away two ridiculous goals which was so unlike us, really, but that was partly down to their quality. I don’t think we’ve conceded a header directly from a corner for a few years. We had to make a call after the sending off and at 2-0, we decided to be brave and try to play with a high line in order to see if we could get a goal back. I have to say, the fact we sat deep in the second-half didn’t matter because the goals kept coming in, they picked the holes with their quality and kept scoring.
“I’ve just said to the players that we have to put this behind us very quickly. We were in Fulham’s position a few times last season, where we ran away against teams who went down to 10-men and it can happen, particularly with high quality players, which Fulham possess. Nobody’s happy and there’s an embarrassment about losing so heavily and we have to accept that, and we can’t hide or run away from it. We have to put it behind us very quickly and see if we can bounce back. I’ve been hugely impressed with the work-ethic and desire of this team this season, given what we lost in the summer and all of the goals that left this team over the summer. The players who started this season have been fantastic and yet, today is a lesson for us which we have to learn from. It’s hard to take, but we have to brush them down and get them ready for Saturday.
“They’re in training tomorrow and we’ll go through everything then. We’ll review this game before switching our sights to Sheffield United, on Saturday. The dilemma we had today, was that, at 2-0 down versus a really good side, do you just sit everyone behind the ball and accept defeat, so early on in the game? In hindsight, that might have been the right thing to do, and yet we did that throughout the last 30 minutes, and we conceded three or four goals. I think, when you let good players have a lot of possession and they begin to push their full-backs forward and overload you in wide areas to the point where you can’t get any pressure on the ball, you’re left frustrated as a team. I’m also disappointed that we didn’t defend the crosses that came into our box.
“We’re left frustrated, but we have to put tonight behind us and move on. If these kinds of defeats were happening on a regular basis, I’d be more concerned. I’ve been here, nearly five years, and we’ve never suffered anything like this before. We have to put it behind us very quickly and move on. Let’s hope this football club doesn’t suffer anything like that ever again.”
