Jon Dahl Tomasson was treated to his first taste of a Lancashire Derby and came out on the winning end as Rovers beat Blackpool at Bloomfield Road, 1-0, in-front of the Sky Sports cameras. The Blues boss discussed his derby day delight as his young side put in an experienced performance to come away with three points.
“It’s a great feeling to send over 3,000 Rovers fans home happy. It was a fantastic result, a fantastic performance at a difficult ground. It was a great atmosphere, and we know how much these local derbies mean for our supporters. I thought we looked very solid today and played a high intensity game, sprinting against the ball and when on the ball, we played great one-twos and combination plays. We created a lot of opportunities and probably should have scored a bit more, but we looked dangerous on the transition, and they had difficulty dealing with that.
“It was a great result and we’re delighted that we got a clean-sheet. Dom (Hyam) played well on his debut, as did Hayden (Carter) after four weeks out with an injury, which gave us an opportunity to rest Ash, whilst Trav (Lewis Travis) was in an unfamiliar position, but we got through it with a great performance and hopefully our great supporters enjoyed it, because I certainly enjoyed it.
“All the boys did an excellent job. They were very intense, but you have to work hard. Football is the best job in the world, so you have to work hard, but also enjoy it and I think our great fans can see that we worked hard, because when you do that and combine it with a plan to play good, solid football, it looks good. There were a lot of good moments today; a lot of shots, both on and off-target but we showed plenty of quality.
“We spoke about the move leading up to Ben Brereton Díaz’s goal. When we pressed, they kicked it long, so we focussed on keeping possession of the first ball, playing with a few touches and moving the ball forward. Adam (Wharton) did that. He controlled it, played it forward to Bradley (Dack) with his second, maybe third touch, Dack’s second touch was to find Bez (Díaz) who was already running in behind. It was a brilliant goal.
“I would expect Bez to score when he gets into those positions, otherwise I’d put him in the basement(!) It’s not easy to come to Blackpool and play like we did tonight. This result should give our team a lot of confidence, but the first 10-15 minutes were tough. The opening 10-15 minutes of games are always tough, especially if you’re playing away. After that, I thought we grew into the game and became more dominant than our opponent. If you look at all the shots we had, the possession and the possession we had in the final third, I thought we looked very good.
“It was a very mature performance from the young boys who played tonight. They did very well, and there’s a reason why they’re playing, because they possess quality, but they still have a lot to learn. We need to keep their feet on the ground, because they need to keep learning.
“It’s always nice to win. I like to win, players like to win and fans like to win, but along the way, we will win and lose games during this project. We’ve just started and it’ll take some time for things to develop.
“I think the return of 12 points is good for us from August. If you look at the bigger picture, we can be proud of those players who are doing a good job for the club.”
