Following Rovers’ stoppage time Boxing Day defeat away to Sunderland, where the hosts ran out late 2-1 winners, Jon Dahl Tomasson discussed his side’s lacklustre display that led to their second consecutive defeat in all competitions.
“We’re extremely disappointed with the result and with conceding so late on in the game. It was a very close game, where we needed to leave with at least a draw and we didn’t do that. At the end of the day, I think we should have had a free-kick during the build-up of their second goal as there was a two-handed push on Joe (Rankin-Costello), which should have been our free-kick in my opinion. However, when you’re playing in such a tight game, you should be better in order to take home a point.
“It was not a brilliant game, at all, but it was a close game. You always need to draw those close games, and we can be disappointed that we conceded that late on, even if we should have had a free-kick. Of course, we need to learn from these kinds of situations and from when we’re ahead, in order to prolong our leads, in future and not concede straight away.
“There was only around four minutes between our goal and their first goal. Right after scoring is the time where we need to be at our calmest and focussed. All three goals that were scored today were a bit clumsy, to be honest. Normally, when you play a game like this, you get a draw. It had ‘draw’ written all over it. It wasn’t the best afternoon, but we can’t complain about the referees because they try their best. I mentioned their second goal, but I won’t complain about it. That’s football.
“We were not great on the ball, and we lost possession unnecessarily, too many times and we lacked good decision-making in attack. The second-half was better than the first, as we had a bit of momentum. We had a good opportunity where we could have scored, in the second-half, or where we should have made a better decision in the final third.
“Tyler’s (Morton) attempt that was saved in the second-half was a key moment, but there were other moments around that period in the game where we could have made better decisions in the final third. There was another moment where we should have passed the ball to a totally free (Bradley) Dack, but that’s the decision-making we need to work on, but that’s the hardest thing to master in football. We should be extremely disappointed with the result, today, but now we need to look forward to back-to-back home games.
“Tyrhys (Dolan) and Sam (Szmodics) were injured and not ready for today. Dolan will be out for a couple of weeks, but I’m not sure on the timescale for Sam, I’ll need to talk with the medical department before I give a better answer to our fans about Sam and about Ben (Brereton Díaz), who picked up a knock.
“I’m looking forward to going back home and playing in-front of our fans against Middlesbrough. We’ve had plenty of great wins with our fans, so far, this season and hopefully we can do that again. The next two home games are a great opportunity to continue this season’s strong home form. We should try to build on that. When we arrived at Rovers, we talked about wanting to make Ewood Park a ‘fortress’ and we need to try and do that. I think we’ve been extremely good at home, if you look at the overall picture. Things can always be better, but at the end of the day, we will of course try to put in a good performance.
“Middlesbrough are in a better place at the moment to the side we beat away from home. They play better football, are more structured and are a better side overall than the side that we faced earlier on in the season.”
