Following his side’s hard-fought goalless draw away at Pride Park against Derby County, Rovers boss Tony Mowbray summed up his thoughts on the game, to the club’s media team.
“On the balance of play, I think tonight was a point gained for us. Let’s be honest, we’ve just played against a very good side who move the ball around the pitch very well and as a result, they gave us a lot of problems. The defensive performance tonight was great as the lads put their bodies on the line to deny Derby a goal. I think we competed better in the second-half after changing our tactics a bit, which saw them find it a bit harder to get through us.
“Overall, we’ll take the point and move on, especially after coming to a big Championship team who have high expectations. We can’t expect it to be like it was last year, where we’re expected to win every game. We had to dig really deep tonight and yet I stand here thinking that had Bradley Dack slotted his chance away, I would have been stood here, probably embarrassed, talking about beating Derby County 1-0.
“The way the lads threw themselves in-front of shots shouldn’t be that surprising, because that’s how we play. There are occasionally going to be games like this where we have to do everything possible to deny the opposition scoring, yet, there will be times where we concede and lose. At that point we’ll have to admit that we got beat by the better team. Although we’re a team who has just come out of League 1, I’ve told the players in the dressing room that we have to be better on the ball, because if we continue giving the ball back to good teams, they’ll eventually punish us.
“If improving means bringing in better players, or developing the squad, then that’s a road we’ll have to take. One route is changing the training from being focused on shape and organisation, to concentrating on ball retention, yet I don’t want to take away from what we’ve got because we’ve got a special group of players.
“We had to make a decision yesterday on Charlie Mulgrew because he came in very ill yet wanted to participate in training. I sent him home and told him to rest up in order to come back on Thursday to prepare for Stoke on Saturday. Charlie’s absence opened up a window for Derrick (Williams), who was amazing for us last season. Tonight, he and Darragh (Lenihan) showed what they were about as they helped secure a fantastic clean sheet for the team.”
After praising his side, Mowbray was asked about the early substitution he made, which saw Craig Conway withdrawn and replaced by Danny Graham and whether it was down to a tactical switch or down to injury.
“It was a tactical switch, and I felt sorry for Craig because he’s waited very patiently for his opportunity, but the reality of the situation was that they were going to score. We needed a platform to play off, which is why I threw Danny on. I think it was the same front 5 that went to Carlisle United and scored 5 goals, yet with total respect to Carlisle, they’re not Derby County, which we found out very quickly.”
The manager was also asked to assess his side’s start to the season, which has seen them play 8 games, win 2, draw 5 and lose 1.
“We’ve started the season well. Both Saturday and tonight were eye-openers for us to be honest, as it shows you who the top teams are in the division. Our play can be slightly different at home because we can afford to push a little further forward but playing away from home is different as they can pick you off and play through your backline quickly, as Derby did today. From our perspective, however, we’ll take the point and move onto the next game, which is away at Stoke City on Saturday.”
