Rovers fought off an early scare to advance into the Carabao Cup Third Round for the first time in four years and Jon Dahl Tomasson was pleased with his young side’s performance in their 2-1 away victory over League Two side, Bradford City.
“It was a great result tonight, with an even better performance. The boys did exactly what I asked of them and exactly what we’ve been training. We played one or two touch football and increased the tempo to create a quick game. They made good runs in behind and focused on the switch of play, which is what we’ve been working on. Without the ball, they were very aggressive, played with a high intensity and won a lot of duels. They did a tremendous job in an environment which is not easy to play in. A lot of the players tonight were very young and had just played youth football, so it was not easy for them to come here, to this great stadium and play ‘men’s’ (senior) football. We came with a very young side today and we made 10 changes because the rest of the boys need to rest.
“The group is stretched, but on the other hand, that gives the rest of the boys a chance to catch my eye and develop and I think they’ve done a good job. I’m very pleased with tonight’s outcome as everything went right. I’m happy with how we stood up to the challenge right at the end of the game as Bradford City pushed forward. Overall, it was a great game to watch with us having a lot of good chances, which we created.
“I was pleased with the way we started the game. It was a great game that I enjoyed watching. After the first 45 minutes, I was extremely satisfied. I demanded, at the break, that the boys keep their intensity up and continue producing the same level of quality in the second-half. They didn’t keep it up for the full 90 minutes, but I was satisfied with the great overall performance. It was great for the youngsters (to make their debuts), but they need game time to develop. They need to be matched and challenged at a higher level than youth football. I think we all learned from today’s game, whether it being us as a staff or the young boys on the pitch. We had an extremely young side out there, tonight, but it’s very easy to play football if you do the right things and tonight was a positive example of that. It’s also a positive that those youngsters are getting minutes in the first-team, because they need minutes to develop and improve as individuals, because we need to create and develop players over time, which is something we’re working on every day.
“I think Louie (Annesley) and Jake (Garrett) both did a good job on their debuts. Louie was a bit unsecure during the first 15 minutes but grew into the game, whilst Jake did an excellent job. I don’t think it’s fair to single out individuals, because it was a great collective performance and all the lads did an extremely good job, both with and without the ball and I enjoyed seeing all the chances we created. I didn’t enjoy the ones we didn’t score, because I thought we could have scored more goals, but I enjoyed the way we played and the way we created those chances.
“Everybody likes goals, so I would have liked to have seen more of the chances we created, scored. I like goals, the players like goals, the supporters like goals, it’s what the game’s about. Saying that, creating and finishing the chances is the most difficult part of playing football. The way we played, however, was extremely pleasing.
“Everyone should be trying to force their way into my thoughts for selection in the league, not just Bradley (Dack) and Dilan (Markanday), who scored tonight, or those who are coming back from long-term injuries. If you’re young or more experienced, it doesn’t matter to me. If you get given a chance to play, you need grab that chance and perform to the best of your abilities and all 11 players who started tonight did that. That’s very important for us, because in football, there will always be chances coming your way as a player. You saw Dack getting a chance off the bench against Reading, but the whole team was not good that day, but today, he played a brilliant 90 minutes! That’s just an example of trying to take the opportunities when they come to you and try to do the right thing in order to impress me and the staff. It’s also important for players to be patient, because their opportunities will come over time.
“They’ve all given me a selection headache now, and that’s what you need as a Head Coach or Manager. Competition is very important for the dressing room. You need it to push everyone to become better and although we shouldn’t forget that we have a stretched squad, it was also nice to rest a few players tonight, because some of them were in need of a rest. That gave others the opportunity to perform, which they did.”
