After Rovers were restricted to only a point in their 0-0 home draw with Hull City, Jon Dahl Tomasson reflected on the late kick-off, highlighting his side’s lack of prolificacy in-front of goal as a main reason behind dropping two potential points.
“A draw was not the result we wanted. If you look at the game, we lacked a clinical finisher. Had we had one, we would have won the game; it’s quite simple. A clean-sheet is important and although we’re disappointed to only get a draw, if you look at the overall picture, every point you gain is important towards the end of the season. We shouldn’t forget that, but we know how important it is to fight, yet this point will be very important in the end. We’re lacking the quality in the final third, which is an issue. I don’t think Hull City had huge opportunities that worried us today, yet our lack of quality in the final third cost us three points.
“I believe that we played well, but we couldn’t find the finish at the end. That’s the difficult part, to put the ball in the net. Sometimes we started dribble, pass the ball or take too many touches, instead of shooting at goal. There were plenty of players in the box and we could have potentially used low crosses, but we didn’t find any of those in the area. However, some of the players who were in the box, were probably not in the right spot to score. Saying that, the boys have continued to fight and give everything for the club and the fans, so they deserve great credit. We shouldn’t forget that Hull City have been doing well recently and have been tough to beat.
“We struggled in-front of goal today and didn’t have enough shots. We were slow and didn’t make the right decisions. In the first-half, we had some good attacks, but we also played backwards and sidewards too much and were a bit slow in the build-up. During the last period of the game, the lads gave their all and tried to force a goal, to their credit, but at the end of the day, we failed to score and only got a draw.
“Goals decide games, that’s quite an easy thing to understand. If you don’t score, it’s important to keep a clean-sheet. I’m extremely satisfied with earning a clean-sheet. We’re still in the playoffs with five games to go. We’ve surprised everybody, which we’ll continue to do. I think, if you asked people at the beginning of the season whether they’d take Blackburn Rovers being in the playoffs with five games to go, everyone would have taken that immediately.
“This league is a bit of a rollercoaster. It’s an extremely tough league that has always been open. We’re an ambitious team. We go onto the pitch, looking to win every game. We’re not favourites to be in the playoffs, but the lads are trying everything to finish in the top six.
“The five games we have left might be tough, but every game in this great league is tough. It’s extremely exciting to have these five games left. We should look forward to and enjoy these games. You can lose and win every game in this league, we see that every week.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned by our lack of goals, recently. As I’ve said, goals are the most important thing in football and we didn’t manage to score, today.
“We have great young players in this club, but they’re not used to playing at this level, especially towards the end of the season. It’s a great experience for the likes of Harry (Leonard) and Adam (Wharton), but they’re good footballers.
“I would ask the fans to keep behind the team. Stay positive, as we are working extremely hard to try and stay in the playoffs. We have surprised a lot of people this season as a club, both in the cups and the league, we should enjoy this experience and do our best, but we should also remember that we don’t finish in the playoffs, but we’re doing everything to make sure our season continues.”
