After Rovers picked up their first victory of the 2019-20 Sky Bet Championship campaign, at home to pre-season playoff hopefuls Middlesbrough, Tony Mowbray reflected on the 1-0 win against his boyhood team with the club’s media team, as he discussed the positives from the affair and heaped praise on his players for securing their first clean sheet of the season.
“I’ve just been praising the players in the dressing room and telling them that all the good qualities that we’ve been trying to instil in their play over the past few years, has come out today. When this team has its back against the wall a bit, it can come out fighting and that’s what I think we did today, we did whatever it took to win the game. That was my message before the game, really, to do whatever we could to get the points required to get our season up and running. There was a half-an-hour spell in the first-half where we dominated and had a lot of crosses in their box, which is where the penalty came from.
“We played alright, moved the ball around, we put an extra pass in, but I also understand that, at a point it got a bit frantic, so we went a bit direct towards Danny Graham. This team has had a lot of success with going direct over the past few years, so I think it’s just a case of finding a balance, which we’ve talked about this week. ‘When to play into the strengths of the personnel on the pitch?’, so if we’ve got Danny, you have to play into his body which allows him to create for those around him. Sam Gallagher also showed today, that he’s got some power and presence around the box even when he’s in the wider areas.
“We can ask questions of teams and threaten them as long as there’s a concentration and a combative element in midfield. I thought that (Lewis) Travis and (Bradley) Johnson were very good today and yet, even when they were at times outnumbered, they still put a shift in and managed to regain possession of the ball, without complaint. That’s a key issue with playing Bradley Dack in behind the striker, ‘how far do you let him play up the pitch?’, or is it a case of, ‘he needs to come back and help the midfield?’. I stand here however, pleased with the performance and the points, we now have to go to Hull City on Tuesday, yet we have a few tired bodies and tired limbs in the dressing room, as if we were chasing the victory today, not holding onto it, however they’ll have a few days to recover before Tuesday quickly comes around, where we will hopefully make it back-to-back wins.
“I think today, for the club, it was all about getting the points, and yet for me, there was possibly some added spice to the game because it was against Middlesbrough and Woody’s (Jonathan Woodgate) in-charge, who I signed many years ago, but ultimately it was about getting the win for Blackburn Rovers and not being rooted to the bottom of the table with no points, even though I thought the lads performed well for a majority of the time during the Charlton and Fulham matches, but the fine margins went against us. Even if we had lost 1-0 today, I still wouldn’t have been worried because I can see the foundations and qualities in this team, and I know that every single one of them will give their all for each other and the team. We have got to try and make Ewood Park a fortress, of course, even though we have a massive task next week with Cardiff City, but we have to focus on one game at a time, starting with Hull on Tuesday.
“I was delighted with the clean sheet, today. We’ve talked about making first contact when the ball comes into our box. Our ‘goals against’ column, will rapidly reduce if we can make first contact from balls into the box, even if you’re skimming it off your head, rather than a proper header, it all ultimately makes a difference defensively. We’ve worked a lot on that in training and it’s almost become a desperation now about making sure you make first contact with the ball when it comes in and I think its paid dividends today. I hope the team will grow from today’s clean sheet and we’ll get to a point where clean sheets will be in their stomachs, as it’s how they earn their wages. That’s exactly how I was when I played, I wasn’t worried about the ‘glamour boys’ at the front, I was focussed on doing my bit, and that’s what I’ve tried to engineer into this group, so they’ll take a lot of pride in that display today.
“I think Darragh (Lenihan) and Derrick (Williams) have a lot of respect for each other and know each other’s qualities, they’re in the Republic of Ireland squad together, of course and they’re pals off the pitch, which makes a difference on the pitch as, they can ‘eff and blind’ at each other or pat each other on the back and know that they’re not falling out or taking it personally because it’s a really important thing and it almost comes with the job. I had that with Gary Pallister at Middlesbrough for a number of years, we both had huge mutual respect for each other, and it helped strengthen that part of the team. Of course, we’ve got Tosin (Adarabioyo), who I thought was good at Fulham in spells, so there’s a possible conundrum for us moving forward and is something we’ll have to solve when the time comes along.”
