Rovers slipped to a fourth consecutive defeat as they ended 2023 in the worst possible fashion, after losing 3-2 to Hull City on Friday evening. Jon Dahl Tomasson discussed the final festive fixture, highlighting key areas where he believed his team – who saw the game out with ten men after Dominic Hyam was dismissed – went wrong in Yorkshire.
“We’re extremely disappointed with tonight’s result as we knew that this would be a very difficult away game, coming into this evening, against a very good footballing side. We’re disappointed with the goals we’ve conceded. For the first two goals, we had a good shape, spare players around Hull, but they still scored. After going 2-0 down, I thought the team showed great character and resilience and played good football and created a lot of chances. I thought we were dominant in the first-half, even when we conceded the two goals.
“The players’ attitude was great. In the second-half, we pushed to win the game, because that’s what we want to do in every game. It was a fairly equal game and then we managed to concede a soft goal from a corner, which we should have defended better. Then, it becomes difficult to win a game when we concede three goals, when you’re away, even if you score two really good goals. I thought the side, from a footballing point of view, played really well, tonight, but of course, we would have preferred the three points.
“I’m disappointed for our fans who have taken a lot of time, spent a lot of money and made a lot of effort to travel and support us over the Christmas and New Year period. I thought, at the end of the day, despite the long journey, they remained behind the team and despite going down to ten men, the team stayed strong and continued to try their best to push for an equaliser. We showed great spirit, but in the end, that wasn’t enough to win the game.
“It’s quite simple; we’re conceding too many soft goals for a side that want to win football matches. Anything that can go wrong, has gone wrong for us. I think the players are fighting for Rovers, but we need to improve in those defensive situations, particularly at the corner. We can, however, talk about and praise their resilience. To be 2-0 down at an away game, the attitude and spirit that they all showed was very impressive and we should be proud of that. When you fall, as we have done a lot in the last period, then you need to stand up again. The best thing about this time of year, is that we have another game soon, on New Year’s Day at Ewood Park against Rotherham United. That’s something we need to look forward to, in order to focus on trying to turn this bad run around.
“Half-time came at a bad time, as we’d managed to pick up some momentum and were in a really good position. On the other hand, I thought the second-half was quite equal and the balance could have tipped either way, but in the end, things become difficult when you go 3-2 down and play with ten men. However, on the other hand, we actually managed to craft some good opportunities to score a third, even with ten men, which showed that the players were doing the right things and trying to do everything they could to get a draw.
“I need to stop complaining about referees, otherwise I’d be talking about them every week. I was disappointed with those decisions, but if I start complaining, I will never stop.
“We know that the players are great lads and that they’re doing everything to try and win games, but most of them have never played three games a week, before. This is a great learning curve for them, and we shouldn’t forget that this league is an extremely good league. Suddenly, they’re asked to play three or four games on the bounce. As a player, you will grow in robustness over time, but when you first try to play so many games in quick succession, you can be slow on the ball and make poor decisions, which is normal. That’s part of football and their development as players.
“Semir Telalović has arrived from the fourth-tier of Germany and is unproven at this level, but we all know that we’re trying to turn him around into a proven striker at this level. He’s working hard for that, he’s a great lad and I thought he did well for the team, tonight. He’s also not used to playing for 90 minutes at this intensity, which is why I had to substitute him. This is a great league and a great experience for him. You cannot compare this league to the lower divisions in Germany. The Championship is a high level & he’s arrived here without much game time in the higher divisions of Germany. I think tonight was a good night for him, because he’s willing to learn.
“We need to turn our results around. If you look at the team’s performance, and remove the goals we conceded, the team played an excellent game today.
“We need all the fans at Ewood Park on New Year’s Day, like we had them today. They are a massive help, especially when the group is young. They were behind the team today in great numbers, which was amazing to see, but I also know that they will be behind the team when we play Rotherham on Monday.”
