After Rovers came from behind to secure a point courtesy of a Ben Brereton Díaz second-half strike, away at Ashton Gate against Bristol City, Blues gaffer Tony Mowbray spoke of his delight at how substitute Daniel Ayala made the difference for Rovers and gave them a platform to work off.
“We were all really disappointed with the first-half performance. For 10 minutes, we looked like we’d started off well and looked a threat in-behind them, and yet, we blew out of steam towards the end of the first period and their directness was giving us problems. I genuinely sat, after 20 minutes, and thought to myself whether I’d bring Daniel Ayala on and yet I wanted to give the same lads who performed so well against Sheffield United, before the international break, an opportunity to see if they could produce again. The unfortunate injury to Ian (Poveda) is disappointing for us because he was starting to come into his own and pushing himself forwards to show everybody what a talented boy he is. Yet, if anything, removing him helped us today, because Ayala started to deal with their directness better than Scott (Wharton) and Darragh (Lenihan) were. I genuinely believe that having Daniel on the pitch gives the other lads beside him confidence. Lenihan was immense in the second-half and maybe that was because he had Ayala alongside him.
“Today was a ‘game of two-halves’ for us, really. I was really frustrated at half-time and the team were also frustrated with themselves. But we were much better and more positive in the second-half and looked more likely to score a goal. We then grabbed the equaliser and I thought we were going to go on and nick a win, but we couldn’t get away from their directness. They kept lumping long-balls into the box and you have to be able to defend that, which we did in the second-half.
“We shouldn’t be surprised by Ben Brereton Díaz’s quality finish, because he’s a threat to any opponent. He wasn’t ‘wow’, today, but he scored a marginally offside goal and made up for it with a brilliant goal to draw us level. That’s what his job is, especially without Sam Gallagher available. We’ve given Tyrhys Dolan a little mental break at the moment, but he’ll come back fighting on all cylinders, I hope. I don’t think Bezza would want to be left out, if I’m honest, when he’s on such a good goalscoring run, because I think he believes and feels that he’s going to score in every game. He’s got a lot of confidence and belief to lash it into the roof of the net from such a tight angle. It was a brilliant finish to be honest and I’m pleased for him that he’s in such good form and enjoying his football.
“Both sides could have nicked the game during the last 15 minutes or so. Bristol City were a threat today and their crowd got behind them. It was a difficult day for the referee – (John Busby) – and it seemed like there were many decisions where he blew his whistle but was unsure on what or which way, he was going to give a certain decision and ended up guessing. We had to defend a lot today and Ayala was immense in the second-half at getting first contact on balls into the box and heading them out of our box and it was crucial that we had him on the pitch. We carried a threat going forward. The speed of (Reda) Khadra was key as I thought he really hurt them at times and Ben was always threatening today. We’ll take the point from today and if we can back it up with all three against Peterborough United on Wednesday, then this point will be a good one.
“I heard that Ian had gone to hospital because there was a lot of concern surrounding his ankle, because he was in a lot of discomfort. Our doctor thought it was best that he went to hospital in an ambulance to get it checked and scanned. The initial thought was that it was a bit of ligament damage, but we have to wait and see what the results say. Whatever it is, it looks like it’ll keep him out of the team for a while, but let’s hope the scan doesn’t show much damage. Ian was shocked by the contact, but hopefully there’s no real damage, or anything off the bone. As I stand here now, he looked in a lot of discomfort at half-time, so only time will tell.”
