Rovers stopped their rot of defeats by earning a clean sheet in a goalless draw against West Bromwich Albion, on Monday night. Following the game, Tony Mowbray reflected on his side’s efforts, to RoversTV, as his side earned their first shut-out in two games. The gaffer also discussed the injuries to Ben Brereton Díaz and Daniel Ayala that occurred throughout the night, as well as touching upon the potential return of Bradley Dack.
“The dressing room felt like it could have been three points, tonight, rather than one. I think the lads were disappointed in the end, not to get all three points. I think we threatened their goal in the second-half and played a lot of the game in their half, in and around their box, but it just didn’t break for us. I can picture John Buckley dancing across their box and shimmying, waiting for an opportunity to shoot, before threatening again before eventually striking. We’ve lost goals like that in the past, because the ball ends up ricocheting off somebody and roll into a corner of the net. Yet, that wasn’t happening for us tonight.
“Ben Brereton Díaz scored two goals tonight, but both were ruled out for offside. I think the second one was very marginal, according to the analysts. We’re disappointed that we didn’t get all three points, and this is the Hawthorns, which is a tough place to go. I’ve managed here when there’s 30,000 people in the stadium and they’re like a 12th man, it’s a tough atmosphere to come here and win games in. They’ve also had Steve Bruce come in and their intensity was high as a result. I think our attitude at the final whistle, shows how far we’ve come on the journey. I believe we’re going in the right direction, if we’re disappointed with just a point, after coming away from the Hawthorns.
“We’re doing a lot of the right things in the final third, but things just aren’t quite going our way. We got in some great positions, and we couldn’t find the breakthrough. We do a lot of work on getting the ball into the final third and finishing, but in training, we sometimes end up with days like today. So, when we start the next training session, I’ll be talking to the coaches about finishing drills and trying to recreate the matchday situations. We work on getting people in-behind and into the box and then challenge them to see whether they can pick the right pass out and allow the receiver to score with one touch. We do those kinds of drills, yet we’re left frustrated with a lack of goals for the team, despite the fact they fight and work really hard. I’m happy with the clean sheet, but this was a game where, if we’d have played during our spell where we won six or seven games on the bounce, we would have won 1-0, tonight. We have to turn that form around, which we can only do by working at it and trying to improve, because I believe that we’ve got the players to do so. We have a lot of options up-front as the season moves on, Ben (Brereton Díaz), Sam (Gallagher), John (Buckley), Reda (Khadra), Tyrhys (Dolan), Ryan (Hedges) and although they’re injured, we can add Bradley (Dack) and Dilan (Markanday) to that list. So hopefully, the goals will return, and the clean sheets will remain.
“Considering we had to change the defence so late on, the solidity and clean sheet was a real positive from tonight. The team sheets were already in and Daniel (Ayala) felt a niggle and told us that he couldn’t participate in the game, which forced us into a late change. Daniel Ayala versus Andy Carroll is a good fit for us, and yet Ryan Nyambe vs Karlan Grant was also a good fit. It’s been very difficult for me to change the back three, whilst the clean sheets have been so prominent this season, and yet, I do think that Ayala is a very good central defender with outstanding heading ability. Yet, Jan Paul van Hecke showed how dominant he could be, Scott Wharton showed his aerial prowess as he got a lot of first contact on crosses and set-pieces. We have to keep going with them and working with them. It’s great that Ryan (Nyambe) played so well as a right-centre-back. I know he plays there for his country, Namibia, but I didn’t overly worry about him filling in there, because Grant might have been a concern against Jan Paul, because Ryan is a bit quicker and stronger than him, and Ryan dealt with Grant without any real issues. The defensive display was fine and the clean sheet was brilliant, but I’m a bit disappointed that we didn’t find a way to convert one of our chances. We’d done the work in training, discussing to Jan Paul and Scott about the threat that Carroll posed. Although Jan Paul is on loan from Brighton and Hove Albion, tonight was a great challenge for him to play against a very experienced Premier League player and this experience will stand him in good stead for his future.
“I’m not too sure on what Ben’s injury is, so we’re going to have to send him for a scan. I think he’s just feeling the aftermath of getting kicked, which is better than a potential torn muscle, because a torn muscle could see him out for up to six-to-eight weeks, but I think he’s been kicked. If that’s the case and its only contusion, then he might have a chance at making Millwall on Saturday. I don’t know what’s wrong with Daniel. He was feeling something in his calf, but we had him scanned earlier on and there wasn’t a lot of damage there, which is why he was pencilled in to play. Yet, he did the warm-up and then felt he wasn’t up to it. I don’t know. I like all my players, and I’ll sit and talk to Daniel to see what the issue was. If he’s saying that he can’t play, I have to accept that and make the necessary changes, that’s why you have a squad of players. It’s great for other players to be able to come in and do well. It’s great for Joe Rankin-Costello to be able to play 75 really good minutes, instead of sitting on the bench. Whilst it’s disappointing for Daniel, it was great for Joe and that’s the way it is. Darragh Lenihan will be back for Saturday, so let’s see who’ll be available by the weekend.
“I think Bradley (Dack) is still a bit away from being part of the first-team, personally. I watch him in training, and he’s still got all the skill that we’ve come to know and love from him. He’s great at getting hold of the ball by sticking his backside between the ball and his marker. He picks passes that nobody else in our team could probably pick, he can score a goal out of nothing, and the temptation is to give him 15 minutes, for him to potentially score from nothing, but he hasn’t completed 90 minutes yet. I still think he’s carrying the injury and the rehab a bit, and I don’t think he’s got full flexion in his knee. It’s great that he’s out there on the grass and on the journey back to full fitness.
“I said a couple of weeks ago, that he probably needs a pre-season to really get back to 100%, yet somewhere down the line, after he’s got through two, three, four, 90-minute games, we have to make the call of whether he can make the difference off the bench for the first-team and make a positive impact for 20 minutes. I’m not sure he’s capable, at this moment, to get up to the intensity that this team must play at, to get results, but if you’re putting him on to try and score out of nothing and accept that he probably won’t do the running that everybody else does, at the tempo that they do, that’s a call Bradley, myself and the medical department will have to make somewhere down the line. In my mind, I don’t think we’ll be seeing Bradley in the next four weeks, at least, because he needs to play more games and get through more 90 minutes.”
