After Rovers won their fifth home consecutive game, following a 2-1 win over Birmingham City, Jon Dahl Tomasson expressed his delight and heaped praise on his players for grinding out a victory against an in-form side.
“The players deserve a lot of credit for winning three games in a week. The team spirit is very high and the togetherness between them and the fans is great. It’s been a tough week, but it’s been a great, positive week with wins over Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Birmingham City today. Today’s victory at home over Birmingham City was a great win against a tough side. They have been playing extremely well over the last few weeks and a lot of teams have had difficulties and struggled against them. I think we had difficulties with them today, as well, but we scored two great, but different goals.
“It’s great to see the switch of play and Tyler (Morton) who was our number eight, make a run and assist to Sam (Gallagher), who scored an ‘easy’ tap-in. I want to say it was easy, but I shouldn’t really, because Sam had to be there to put it away, but it was a great goal. Adam (Wharton) scoring his first senior goal, a few days after Scott (Wharton) scoring against Sunderland must be great for the family. The Wharton family must really be enjoying life!
“Thomas (Kaminski) was brilliant today. We shouldn’t forget Thomas. In one way, today was an ‘ugly win’, but it was also a mature performance where the boys defended together. Defending is an important part of football. On the ball, we were not brilliant, we gave them a couple of chances through some mistakes, but we ended up defending towards the end with a very young side. We ended the game with an average age of 22 years, which is extremely young for this difficult league, but it’s good for the future. That, as I’ve mentioned, will bring inconsistency due to the age of the squad.
“Today was a game for an ‘ugly win’, not the beautiful football we know we can play. I saw the game, you saw the game and the football was not brilliant, but we fought together, alongside our fans to get the result. I think our fans enjoyed the passion and the fight that we showed today. They could see that the football was not good, but there’s a respect between the players and fans and their help and togetherness to get us over the line was vital. We need to deal with those difficult scenarios where we’re trying to hold onto a lead at the end of the game with a young team. They stayed in the game and it kept the three points here at Ewood Park.
“I’ve spoken about wanting Ewood Park to be a ‘fortress’. We’re enjoying the time that we’re winning games here, but we’ll also lose here, for sure. It’s been a good week and I think this project is a great one with a lot of possibilities for the future. The future is not tomorrow, the future is a long way away and that’s what we’re working towards every day.
“Adam’s celebration was brilliant! I was surprised he managed to do it! I’m a bit ‘old-school’ and would have never cartwheeled like that; I would have probably broken my back! I didn’t know that the boy had it in him, so I’ll probably ask Scott and see if he can also pull it off!
“We know Adam’s quality on the ball. He needs to develop his game intensity, his defensive acumen and him winning his duels, because that’s where he needs to improve. The only way you can improve is to practice and develop each day and help the boy get better, which includes the odd game.
“I don’t have any words for Thomas. If I had to give him one word, it would be ‘World Class’. He’s a goalkeeper of the highest quality and he’s been improving through the season. We shouldn’t forget that Thomas is around the Belgium squad, as well, that means he’s a quality goalkeeper, but also he’s a very good lad as well. Goalkeeper is an extremely important position. You need a good goalie, for sure.
“The boys who have played today will be in recovery tomorrow and the rest will play an internal game at Brockhall tomorrow, to get 90 minutes into their legs, before they get Monday and Tuesday off. I think the group need to get away from game time and seeing my face! They will have some family time at the start of next week.
“Ryan (Hedges) will have a scan in the next few days. Callum (Brittain) got injured on Tuesday against Sunderland. It’s nothing serious, but it might take a while to get him back to full fitness and a few hours before kick-off, Sam (Szmodics) came in and he had an acute neck problem. His neck was quite stiff, which was very unlucky for him, but it obviously meant he couldn’t play.”
