Blackburn Rovers were unable to mathematically secure safety after a collapse in the Ewood Park sun saw over 7,000 Sheffield Wednesday fans celebrate exiting the bottom three for the first-time since the opening day of the season. A tepid John Eustace spoke to RoversTV after the 12:30pm kick-off as he reviewed a disappointing day for his side.
“We’re very disappointed to lose the game. It’s not what we wanted and the manner in which we conceded the goals was very poor from our point of view. It’s a real bad afternoon. Since we’ve come in, individual errors have cost us over the time I’ve been here, but we’ve always backed ourselves to bounce back and now, we’ve got a great opportunity to work hard in training to try and put things right.
“The challenge is to now bounce back like we did last week. Everything is still in our hands. We felt very confident coming into today’s game, and I thought we played well in the first-half and edged them out, but in the second-half, the goals changed the game and the manner we conceded those two goals were very poor. We have to learn from today, we have a massive game next week and have a very hard week ahead of us on the training ground to put things right.
“The close proximity of the second and third goals didn’t really give us a chance to respond. The body language of the boys wasn’t ideal, and we started to feel a little bit sorry for ourselves. It was really disappointing, but this is football. Last week, we defended very well and as a unit and we bounced back from a bad defeat against Bristol City; now we have to bounce back again and show the real togetherness that we talk about.
“The third goal was a difficult moment for Aynsley Pears, but that’s the life of a goalkeeper. He was the Man of the Match last week and today he’ll be disappointed with the third goal. It’s all part of the game. He hasn’t let anyone down this year, he’s been great since I’ve been here. We have a strong dressing room in there, we’ll stick together, and he’ll have an opportunity to put things right next week.
“I don’t think the lads have ever shown negativity or a lack of belief, they’re a very confident group. It wasn’t our day, and the goals changed the game as we struggled to find an answer to Sheffield Wednesday. The boys will be back in tomorrow, and we’ll work hard before being ready to go again next week.
“Scott Wharton took a bad kick to the leg, and he’s come out on crutches. We’ll have to get that scanned in the week to see what the problem is.”
