With Rovers suffering their second defeat in the space of 5 days, Tony Mowbray reflected on a frustrating and lacklustre performance, to the club’s media team, after he saw his players lose 3-1 away at Wigan Athletic, in-front of a healthy midweek travelling support of 2,148 fans.
“I think tonight has been the worst performance that we’ve had ever since I stepped through the door, but we’re all in this situation together. I’ve let the players know my feelings and if I’m honest, I have no idea where that performance has come from. I talk a lot about the spirit and the camaraderie of the players and yet I think Wigan set the tone of the game early on and we didn’t face up to the challenge in-front of us, that they were setting, which is the most disappointing aspect in my view. We didn’t deserve anything from the game and it’s probably our biggest test now to get back on track.
“I think the game itself was a terrible one. If I was watching as a neutral, I’d be sat thinking that the game was a poor affair, with a pair of poor teams playing against each other. I shouldn’t really be talking about Wigan, and good luck to them for the future, but I felt the game was dreadful overall. It lacked quality and I didn’t recognise our team, which is something we must improve upon. We’re better than that display, and everyone who’s watched us for a long period of time, knows that we’re better than that display. We need to return to our normal standards of football, very, very quickly.
“I’m under the impression that the players have lost their identity, a little bit, of how we managed to achieve success. They’re a bit stuck between a few ideas, so we’ll return back to the basics of what made us successful to begin with. We’ll address the issues and discuss how we’ll be going forwards on the training ground, but obviously, we have a game on Saturday, so we’ll focus on the video for tonight’s game, get back to basics on the pitch, on Friday and then move into Saturday’s game at home to Sheffield Wednesday.
“I need to be careful with what I say to the microphone, because I don’t want to create a divide with my players. They know my thoughts, and I’ll keep that within the walls of the dressing room, because you don’t need to protect them in the dressing room. It takes a lot for me to get really, really angry with the players and we need to apologise to the fans for that display tonight. Ultimately, the players know what I think of their performance.
“The positive characteristics that I’ve talked about will be exposed on Saturday. They’ll all be on show for the fans to see, so hopefully, the fans who came tonight and who will go to Ewood, will make their own judgements regarding the team and their characteristics on Saturday, against Sheffield Wednesday.”
