After Rovers stumbled to a 1-1 draw with Huddersfield Town as their search for a league win extended to seven games, Jon Dahl Tomasson discussed the lethargic performance with RoversTV as the Danish boss expressed his thoughts on the second failure to defeat the Terriers this season.
“I’m disappointed not to win the game, but Huddersfield Town came here with a very specific plan. I think they executed that plan really well. They wanted to sit back and hurt us on transitions, counter-attacks and set-pieces. I thought we started really brightly and scored an excellent goal which came from our press. It was a great goal for Adam (Wharton) and we managed to gain momentum in that period until Hayden (Carter) got injured, and then we lost that momentum. We lost the opportunity to have overloads on the right, with Hayden advancing and we played slower. We conceded a poor goal where the marking should have been better. Michał Helik has scored eight goals this season, which made him a threat and it showed the quality that Huddersfield had at set-pieces, but we still should have done better as a team.
“In the second-half, I thought we did a lot of good things, up until the final third, and around the box. We played against a solid Huddersfield wall, who were deep and made it difficult to play through. When we’ve played against those deep blocks, I think we’ve been quite good and created chances, but today was more difficult because we were lacking runs from deep, we took too many touches and spent too much time on the ball which meant that the pace of the game disappeared. I must give Huddersfield credit because they defended very well, but on the other hand, I think our lads deserve credit because despite all of the setbacks we had, they continued to fight and credit to our fans who stuck behind the team. When you can’t win, it’s important that you don’t lose. We should take positives from that and the fact that we didn’t concede late on, as well.
“I think the injuries killed the momentum of our game. That shouldn’t happen, but it does in football. I don’t know the extent of those injuries, (to Harry Pickering and Hayden Carter) but when players go off like that, they’re not going to be fit tomorrow! Hopefully they’ll have a scan either tomorrow or Monday and then we’ll know more about the situation. We had some players playing at centre-back, today that don’t usually play there, but we lost two centre-backs in the summer who we haven’t replaced. Hopefully, we can get some players in.
“I’m concerned for Harry (Pickering) and Hayden, of course, because the squad has been really stretched since December and now, we’ve managed to get some players back. Today’s the first day, in a long while, where we’ve been able to make changes from the bench. It’s extremely disappointing to lose Harry and Hayden, because they’ve been doing a lot of good things, this season. As a sportsman, you don’t want to get injured, you want to play as much as possible. We will miss that duo like we’ve missed a lot of players this season.
“We’re all extremely disappointed with conceding another set-piece. Even though they have great quality in that department, it’s frustrating to concede such a goal. We should have dealt better with that situation and we’re all frustrated with this situation. When you concede a goal like that, you want to run away and hide because you’re so disappointed with those moments, as we had so much control of the game.
“There’s a lack of confidence in the squad; particularly in the forwards areas, but if you look at before Adam’s goal, we were still in total control and played very well. Goals change games and Hayden’s departure also changed the momentum. Of course, the results haven’t been good since December, even though we’ve had some good performances. It can impact confidence, of course it can. Nobody is a robot, we’re all disappointed with the situation. You don’t sleep well during these (poor) runs and I’m sure our fans are the same. That’s also why I really appreciate that they stick behind the team and it will be important that they remain behind the players during the upcoming games at Ewood Park, because the lads need that support. It’s important they stay behind the club during a very difficult situation behind the scenes. That’s part of the dedication that I know our fans have, which is great.
“Aynsley (Pears) did well with a great save towards the end. I needed to take Sam (Gallagher) and Ben (Chrisene) out, because they weren’t able to play the full 90 minutes at the moment, but it’s great to see Ben involved and great for Sam to be back. Hopefully, we can build on their fitness in the coming weeks.”
