After leading his team to a fourth successive victory, following their 2-0 defeat of Bolton Wanderers at Ewood Park on Easter Monday, Tony Mowbray expressed his delight at the victory, the clean sheet and a first goal in Rovers colours for Ben Brereton, as the gaffer spoke to the club’s media team.
“I think we’ve had a good afternoon today, which was made better by the very important clean sheet. Getting 3 points against an already-relegated team like Bolton is tough, because the win was never a formality. I used Fulham, as an example to the lads in the dressing room beforehand, of a team who have already had their fate sealed but managed to win 2 on the bounce. Sometimes a relegation can throw off the shackles for a side and allow them to play with more freedom with no anxiety, which is what made today a dangerous game.
“We managed today’s game well. Our possession of the ball, at times, was good and I thought the first goal was a great example of the players recognising that Bolton didn’t have everyone back in their half, at that stage, which allowed us to break quickly. Joe (Rothwell) and Bradley (Dack) did well to combine, before Brad laid it off for Ben (Brereton) to finish with his left-foot. It was incisive and important for us to go ahead, I think because that allowed us to manage the second-half. It was great to score so early on in the second-half, but I thought the goal was amazing, despite Adam (Armstrong) needed 2 shots to convert. We opened them up with some lovely football in the build-up to Adam’s goal, which was pleasing for me, because it showed the fruits of the players’ labour on the training ground was paying off and were there for everyone to see.
“At times we can be very one-dimensional into Danny Graham, especially when he’s bullying his defender, but although that’s how we’ve played for the past 2 years, we need to develop and alternate between different styles of play as we play bigger and stronger opposition. We have to be better with the ball and understand when to cut through teams who leave gaps, but when we’ve got the technical quality of a Dack and a Rothwell and the pace of an Armstrong or the physicality of a Graham, it can be a tough frontline to defend against as an opposition.
“Today, Bolton gave us a different problem to deal with because they sat deep and made it difficult for us to exploit the little pockets of space. At the break, we talked about going around the outside, rather than through the middle, which saw us leave Adam and Joe out wide and that that allowed us to get the job done. I’m delighted for the team and for the clean sheet today. We’re on 59 points now and we’re getting close to the 60-point mark, that, at the start of the season, we wanted to get, because it outlined a good start back to life in the Championship. Now we have to push on and strengthen the team, with the aim of achieving 70 points next season, and hopefully a place in the playoffs, if we can.
“I don’t think that Ben (Brereton) not getting a goal until today particularly take a weight off his shoulders, but as a forward player, he’s always going to want to score goals. He wasn’t able to get those goals, because I hadn’t put him in the team anywhere near as much as he probably would have wanted. In fairness to him, however, he hasn’t moaned or has been overly fussy about not starting every week, because he understands that the combination of Graham and Dack was too prolific for us over the course of the campaign, to break up, which made it difficult for Ben to get in, as have been the performances of Adam, who has contributed in both goals and assists this season. Today, we felt as if it was the right time to start Ben and he’s rewarded our faith in him with a goal which will hopefully give him the belief and confidence to push on, heading into next season. I see him in training every day and he’s a very good finisher. He can finish off both feet, he’s very mobile which allows him to travel with the ball, he’s got good trickery meaning he can shift the ball onto either foot in order to beat tackles. As time moves on, our supporters are really going to love Ben Brereton, because he’s a very talented young guy, but we do need to stress how young he is. Although he comes across as a big lad at 6’0”, it doesn’t mean he’s the finished article. He’s just turned 20 recently, which shows how young he is, but I’m sure he’s going to be a big player for our football club as we move forward and we’re looking forward to seeing him score lots of goals in the future.
“This opportunity now allows Ben to come back after the summer break and push Danny and hopefully some new signings, for a first-team spot. We’re not going to be resting on our laurels with what we have, because we want to hopefully make the competition in every department of the squad so that everyone is at their maximum. That’s the plan anyways, so we’ll have to wait and see whether those additions will be free transfers, or multi-million pound signings. I’m hoping they’ll be multi-million pound signings, but we’ll go to India at the end of the season and discuss next year’s budget with the Owners. I think our end of season run helps our case with the Owners, as it allows them to see some of the progression we’ve made as a football club.
“As well as them recognising the progression, I’m also ambitious and want us to progress, because I want to hopefully manage in the Premier League before my days are done in this business, and I don’t see any reason why we can’t achieve Premier League status with Blackburn Rovers. Saying that, however, the task does take investment, because we have to compete with the teams that have come down with parachute payments and those at the top end of the current table who sell-out their stadiums every week. I know it’s difficult, but a good model to go off, is that of Sheffield United. They got promoted into the Championship a few years ago, before having a pretty decent season where they finished mid-table and look at where they are now, on the brink of the Premier League, so hopefully we can take some inspiration from them and follow suit, in the hope that we’ll be up there come the end of next season.
“For long spells this season, we showed that we’re capable of competing with all the other 23 teams in this division. We probably need a few more ‘natural leaders’ in the team that help the team get through when the going gets tough. We’ve seen the days where conceding a single goal, leads to the scoreline becoming 2/3/4 to the opposition, when in reality, the game has been nowhere near as heavy as the scoreline suggests. Sometimes, you need a bit of experience, quality and class to drag you over the line so we’re hoping to add in the summer with some of those attributes. We’re looking hard for all sorts of players, all over Europe. All the staff have been away in Europe on scouting missions and I, myself am off to Europe tomorrow afternoon, where I’ll spend the next 2 days with my eye out for some talent. We’re just trying to find the right players that can help our squad move forward.”
