After Rovers picked up back-to-back wins for the first time this campaign, following a 2-0 home win over Sunderland, live on Sky Sports, Jon Dahl Tomasson spoke of his delight after watching his young side get one over on their former boss, Tony Mowbray, who was in the Sunderland dugout.
“It’s been a fantastic night and a fantastic week for the whole club. The away win at Middlesbrough first, with a very young side, with the way we played was great and then to back it up tonight with another win at Ewood Park against Sunderland was great. It was an extremely tactical game, tonight. I thought we performed at a very high tactical level today and we had some good possession during the first-half. The way we moved the ball in the first-half and the rotations that went with it were good.
“We scored two amazing goals, and then we followed the tactical plan to defend and we kept a clean-sheet against a really good Sunderland team. We want the ‘best of the best’, so if we can pick something to complain about, are the transitions that we need to take advantage of more often. It was a top-class performance. We showed great team spirit and I think the fans enjoyed the game, because the atmosphere was brilliant. I enjoyed tonight a lot. We spoke a while ago about wanting to make Ewood a ‘fortress’ and I think we’re on the right lines. We can always be better and we will, no doubt, lose games along the way, but the togetherness we have as a group and with the fans is important as we should always think about how important they can be to help the team. It’s all about doing things together, because, if you want to be successful, we need that togetherness to help each other.
“It was good to see Sammie (Szmodics), Hayden (Carter) and Jake (Garrett) get some minutes tonight. They’re three who have been patient, waiting for their chance and came in and played a fine game. A young boy like Jake, getting his first start in the Championship becomes another academy graduate, which shows the quality we have in the academy, so we must give the people who work in the academy great credit.
“It does feel like a fortress here at Ewood, after four straight wins. We should have won in the second-half against Stoke City, then it would have been even better. I say, ‘We’ because we’re growing together as staff, players and fans. I see the spirit and the extra yards that the players take, which is great to see. It’s important to make the most of the opportunities when they fall to you. We scored two good goals tonight, but I feel we should have had more on the transition. Ryan (Hedges) nearly won the Goal of the Season competition with a shot from, I don’t know how far out! It was a brilliant effort, but we should be satisfied with today’s performance and result and enjoy it. It’s important for me to make it clear – I love goals. It doesn’t matter how we score them, but if every goal we score is like Sam’s (Gallagher) against Middlesbrough or Ben’s (Brereton Díaz) tonight, it’ll be great, because it’s about our players showing their quality. You can see that they’re both in good, confident form, but you can also see their work-rate and their defensive efforts for the team, which we need as well. They’re both doing a good job for the team.
“The clean-sheet is extremely important because the tactical way we did it and the way we fought for each metre, was good to see, because it shows we’re getting something back for the effort we’re putting in against tough opponents. It is tough, because the boys are playing a lot of games in a very short period, which is great to see, because they’re all great lads to work with. There’s a lot of desire and pride in this squad. The pride of wanting to do a good job for our fans, which is something that deserves to be recognised.
“Jake can be very proud of his performance, tonight. He has been waiting a long time for his chance. I told him not to go out on loan, because I wanted to ‘create’ the player. Sometimes you can send a player out to play ‘men’s football’, but they don’t become who you want. He’s been patient, worked hard and continued to improve over the past couple of months and he’s earning his rewards. When you’re good enough, you’re old enough, eh?
“Managers should always be able to trust their players. They can earn the manager’s trust in a minute or in five minutes, by doing the right things. Managers should never have to earn the trust of the player, it should always be the player earning the trust and that can be done by doing the right things.
“Harry (Pickering) was fatigued due to an excessive amount of games. He’s played five since the start of October, so we wanted to give him a rest and he should be ready to go for training tomorrow.
“I haven’t spoken to my dad yet! I’m sure he enjoyed the game and the performance. I’m sure he lived through the emotions as we do, celebrating and getting nervous as all football fans do!”
