Following Preston North End’s second-half comeback at Deepdale which saw the game end 3-2 to the hosts after Rovers surrendered a first-half two-goal lead, an angered and ‘deflated’ Tony Mowbray reviewed the 107th Lancashire derby between the sides, with the club’s media team, as his side extended their poor form against the Lilywhites to no wins in their past six clashes.
“I think the momentum of the game shifted on their first goal. I said to the players in the dressing room, that if Preston don’t score their first goal, I don’t think they get any goals today. The mistake and result are hugely disappointing, and I think Christian (Walton) knows that he’s at fault for their first goal. He should really see the ball out and I don’t even think he saw their boy (Sean Maguire) behind him, it’s a big mistake. I couldn’t see Preston scoring before that, they were battering their heads against the wall and didn’t know where to go. They put the big man on (Jayden Stockley) who caused Derrick (Williams) a few problems, rather than Tosin (Adarabioyo), but that’s that, the result is in the history books and there’s nothing we can do to change that now.
“I thought we were naïve today, alongside an extraordinarily naïve official (Steven Martin) in the middle as well. It felt as if he gave them 100 free-kicks which gave them the opportunity to keep lumping it into our box, I’ve never seen so many 6ft men on their backsides, falling over, but although that probably sounds like ‘sour grapes’, that’s how I feel the momentum changed. They were given too many free-kicks which gave them the chance to put it into our box, which we failed to deal with, but that’s football.
“I don’t think I’m over the top in what I’m saying regarding the officials, I don’t think it’s the frustration of the result or the story of the game, it just seemed to me that there was a young guy in the middle who ‘didn’t know what he was doing’, which is what it felt like to me on the bench. When I say, ‘he didn’t know what he was doing’, I mean he didn’t know a foul from a ‘non-foul’, he didn’t know a good professional, trying to buy a foul from a genuine foul, and that’s what I think of his performance today. I think he got too many wrong, in my opinion, for me to say that he had an okay day.”
The gaffer was then questioned whether the dressing room felt down and were ‘hurting’ considering how the events of the game panned out which left Rovers embarrassed having let their lead slip.
“I don’t need to answer that question, to be honest, I think the dressing room tried to react from the poor 45 minutes against Birmingham City on Tuesday and they showed what they were about today, in the first-half. Yet having said that I thought naivety, rather than all of the things I highlighted on Tuesday, was the issue today, not any lack of effort or desire. We played some naïve football today, we didn’t manage the game and I think although Preston are pretty good here, it’s not in my nature to tell players how to win free-kicks and stuff like that. It sounds quite damning that, but maybe we should take that approach, especially on a day like today when you have a referee who, every time someone falls to the ground, blows his whistle.”
Alongside being asked about the performance of the team, Mowbray was asked to reflect on the performance of Sam Gallagher, who had picked up his first league goal – as well as causing the own goal – for the club since returning on a permanent deal.
“It doesn’t matter to me (who scores the goals), if the first-half Sam played was good because he scored, was the second-half he played rubbish because he didn’t score? Centre-forwards score goals, but it ultimately doesn’t matter who scores the goals. Sam worked hard today and always has worked hard and just because he doesn’t score a goal in a game, it doesn’t mean he’s not working hard or he’s not doing his job. I’m pleased for him that he’s got a goal under his belt, because centre-forwards ultimately get judged on goals, but I think he worked alright in the second-half and he was just in the right place at the right time for a few deliveries in the first-half which is where the goals came from.
“I’m not as ‘black and white’ as ‘it’s rubbish when we get beat or it’s all great because we win’, you have to break performances down and there was plenty of good stuff today throughout the game, as there has been in a number of games over recent weeks, but the results are not falling our way at the moment and today was another one that went against us.”
