Following Rovers’ 1-0 defeat to playoff hopefuls Charlton Athletic, which saw Rovers’ unbeaten run of 14 games since February end abruptly, Tony Mowbray took some time after the game to speak with the clubs’ media team and sum up his thoughts on what was a disappointing afternoon for the Blues, despite already having promotion in the bag.
“We didn’t get a lot of breaks in today’s game and I think their goal highlighted that, with it being a lucky deflection that wrongfooted Leutwiler. The referee has missed a stonewall sending off when Dominic Samuel was running through on goal in the first-half, but we had some decent opportunities in the second-half that we didn’t take. It just wasn’t to be today, we’ve had a rotated side and it hasn’t worked out. Maybe if we’d had some of the players who’ve been playing more consistently, we would have been talking about a different result, but regardless, I thought the team worked really hard and we had a go in the second-half, but unfortunately it just wasn’t to be today.
“I think our tempo was a bit too slow and that was probably down to the system that we chose to play which was mainly because of the personnel we had in the line-up. We should have been giving Charlton more problems than we did, but we didn’t look like we were brave enough to play and use the quality we have in the side. We tried to change things at half-time and we were becoming more fluid in our play as the game went on, however we couldn’t find the opening we wanted to get the equaliser.
“It doesn’t matter now, the game’s gone. Credit has to be given to Charlton who stuck in and defended well despite our second-half dominance. It was a strange day, and I don’t feel our cause was helped by the match official, however I don’t want to stand here and blame him for our defeat because ultimately our poor performance and lack of taking chances has led to us losing. The game seemed to be more about the referee and his ability to blow his whistle, rather than his ability to correctly officiate the game, I believe that he blew too much and didn’t let the game flow, which ultimately hurt our build-up play.
“I felt that, in the final 20 minutes, Charlton began to hang onto their lead because they were so desperate to win the game. I think that, had we had more fluency in our play, we could have capitalised on their nervousness during that time and snatched a point. Despite having a host of reasons regarding our performance, we’re disappointed with the final result because we took pride in only having 1 defeat in 33 games, and unfortunately, that’s turned into 2 in 34. In the end, it doesn’t really matter, but hopefully we can finish the season off positively, next week, at home to Oxford United.
“I think the game was there to be won, but we didn’t take our chances. I felt that, had we gotten the breakthrough, we would have shown the quality within our ranks and potentially gone on to win the game, but at the end of the day, I have to give them credit for their defensive efforts. Football is a professional sport and they did all they could to deny up from getting a goal. We didn’t lose today because of a lack of effort, desire or drive from the players, we just didn’t get the luck that, at times, you need to win games.”
The manager was then asked whether knowing that Wigan drew 1-1 with AFC Wimbledon, had at all affected or frustrated him, knowing that the title was still on the line.
“Everybody seems to want to win the league, but as the manager of the club, I just wanted to secure promotion because the history books will show who finishes top and it’s not that relevant to me. I don’t even know who their last game is against, to be honest and I don’t really care. All I’m bothered about is that we didn’t win today to keep our run alive, considering the game was there for the taking. If you look at the players we had missing today, the likes of Elliott Bennett, who normally gives us energy going forwards, Derrick Williams, who’s played just about every minute of the campaign and Bradley Dack who’s a gamechanger for us, it shows the commitment and pain the players put themselves through over the past few weeks to get us over the line. Despite the absentees, the team still stuck at it and gave their all, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough.
“The last week of the season, when everything is wrapped up, is hard to focus on, from a players’ perspective. We have a lot of things to do this week, so we’ll get through that and try and get a good result next week. I just want to put on record how proud I am of all the players, their work-rate, their concentration, their desire, was all magnificent throughout the season and despite losing today, they’ve achieved the main goal that we set out to do. It would be nice to win next week, it would be nice if Wigan lose, but ultimately it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work out, because we’re up and we’ll be playing Championship football next season.
“I think it’s important that the players and the supporters of the club have a connection which was shown today by the lads throwing their shirts into the crowd. Teams can’t win, or play well every game, but the supporters can see that the players are giving 100% each match they play in. Sometimes, not everything falls your way and that was shown today by the standard of the officiating and the ridiculous number of stoppages that occurred. We have to move on now, we need to try and enjoy the last week of the season and give the fans a party atmosphere next week by scoring lots of goals and winning the match. It’s not very often we haven’t scored this season, but today was one of those days. Hopefully, some of the injured players will be back next week and we can give a good account of our abilities in the final game.”
