Following Rovers’ collapse at the Weston Homes Stadium, which saw them go down to 10 men, before going ahead prior to throwing the game away in the final moments to lose 2-1 against relegation-threatened Peterborough United, Blackburn Rovers manager Tony Mowbray discussed his frustrations to RoversTV.
“Today’s result is obviously a huge blow to us and to our aspirations. We’ve come to a team who are struggling towards the bottom of the league and we haven’t managed to win. Although playing with 10 men for so long wasn’t a help for us, we managed to get our noses in-front and I don’t think Peterborough United threatened our goal for 70-80 minutes and yet, to lose two goals within the last eight to nine minutes of the game is unforgivable. We need to show more backbone as a team. I’ve said that to them in the dressing room. How does that happen? You have to drive your mate who’s next to you in the team. Nobody should be getting a shot off against you, when you’re ahead. Everybody blocks, everybody wins headers, but it’s a lesson for young players, I think. They have to learn the lessons, otherwise they’ll never improve and get to where they want to be in their career. It’s hugely frustrating and they’re hugely disappointed in the dressing room after the game. We have to pick them up over the next few games before we face Stoke City on Monday.
“We needed to come here and win, today. Obviously, the sending off didn’t help our cause, but we’re left frustrated, disappointed and upset. It was hard on the supporters who came today in big numbers and were fantastic. We’re disappointed for them because they’ve had to make a long journey and for a long part of the game, particularly after we went ahead, it was looking like it was going to be a good day for them, but it’s disappointing for them that we couldn’t see the game out.
“In this job, you live and die by the results. Any defeat should be hurting, regardless of the context of the game and how it went. You have to find a way to win and ultimately, we found a way to throw away a win. It’s been unlike us this season, but it’s a lesson that has to be learnt. I didn’t see the sending off and I asked the staff what he did. I told him to be careful five minutes before, when he came over to have a drink and I had it in my mind that I was going to take him off at half=time, because he hasn’t played for a while and would have got fatigued and overstretched in the second-half. I’ve got my issues with the officials. They came down from the Premier League and yet, it felt that there was an incorrect balance with the officiating and in my opinion, we were being overly penalised. It seemed as if, every time we competed, the whistle blew and every time they pushed someone over, the whistle didn’t blow, but never mind. We have to accept that and move on.
“Today has added to my building frustrations about the officials in this division. I was trying to stay calm today and I know I’m one booking away from missing a game, but there’s no point, because you can shout at them, demand equality and question what he’s seeing, but it doesn’t matter because you end up getting fined and suspended. The officials are the officials, they are what they are. You ask your team to work hard and put every foot in and play as a unit who want to show the supporters how much they care about their club and every time you challenge it seems to be a foul and he never does anything the other way, but he’s a Premier League referee, so he must be good.
“I’m not interested in other results or trying to make excuses, it’s about us trying to win football matches and if we can’t win matches, we aren’t going to get enough points to get anywhere near the playoffs. We have to try and beat Stoke City. If we do that, everyone will feel a little bit better, but then we’ve got to go and play a local derby against Preston North End, before playing Bournemouth at home. We have to try and win games and at this moment, it doesn’t look like we’ve got enough to win football matches. Yet, today, it’s a bit unfair to say that, because we played with 10 men for a long time. It’s hard to control matches with 10 men, particularly given how we play. We’re not a team, like how we were last season, who wanted the ball. We generally play out of possession and on the transition and it was difficult to get the number of bodies forward quickly, to enable us to play the way we wanted to play, given we were a man light in midfield.
“It’s a huge challenge for this group to turn this around with so few games remaining. I’d have to say, looking at them in the dressing room, they look like young players. The dressing room’s really quiet and I’ve been in dressing rooms where people have been throwing punches at each other and men are confronting men. I’m not saying we have to do that, because it doesn’t make you a better footballer or a better team. I say time and time again, that their emotion and passion are there, and I never ask them to give me more, because they give everything they’ve got, as they did again today, on a scorching hot day. Yet, there’s still a bit of naivety in the team. They sometimes play their own game, rather than driving the team, demanding of each other, closing the gaps, pushing the midfield tight, making tackles, stopping a cross or winning a header. You have to encourage and drive each other to be the best and that comes better from the field, rather than a lunatic from the sidelines screaming at them.”
