With his side securing their sixth win from their past eight games, after overcoming a stern Bristol City side at Ashton Gate by a comfortable 2-0 scoreline, boss Tony Mowbray praised his much-changed side after Rovers’ strong momentum during the festive period, continued.
“The lads showed a lot of good stuff today. It was a very disciplined, honest and mature display against a good side in this division. It was great to start so quickly by scoring off a set-piece routine that we’d worked on, on Friday. Bristol City are a good team and their league position until today proves that, with them having been in the playoff positions for most of the campaign. It was a tough game today, and it was very similar to the game we had here, last year, where we started well early on by getting ourselves ahead, but last year the game ran away from us, whereas today we managed to put on a solid display which included a satisfactory clean sheet.
“I was saying to the boys at half-time that they have to quieten the home crowd as they won’t be able to ‘go to war’ and rile up everybody for the whole 90 minutes. We had to be better with the ball in the second-half, than we were in the first, which I believe we were as we kept possession and frustrated them at the death to stop them bombarding us with chances. I said to Adam (Armstrong) before he went on, ‘when the chance falls to you, make sure you stick it in the back of the net’, and he did just that. I’m delighted for the lads because they’ve put in a lot of hard work over the past week, week and a half being trapped in coaches and hotels away from their partners and kids. They’re only young lads but I’m delighted that the sacrifices they’ve made has yielded some good points on the road for them, the fans and the club.
“We talked about ‘not going to war’ with their fans or the match official and making a note of treating the referee with respect and not shouting at him or criticising him in order to rile up the opposition and their crowd and the lads showed their maturity to manage the game, which is great to see. As a result of that performance, I’ve been given a selection headache which is what you want as a manager. The plan with Adam worked as intended as they were pushing up to the halfway line trying to force an opportunity or a mistake from us, and I thought that Adam’s pace was perfect for that scenario and thankfully he got his goal after Johno (Bradley Johnson) put him through. I’m happy enough with that performance and result because it’s shown the different types of players we have within the squad. Had we been getting bombarded by long balls, Danny Graham might have come on to help on the defensive side of the game, but today offered us a lot of space in-behind them in the latter stages, which was made for Adam.
“Whilst I don’t particularly pay attention to things that are said beyond the walls of the club, I hope today shows the quality and depth that we have available within our ranks. People can moan about selection, but the hardest job for any football manager is to invest in the human qualities of the players but then let them down by leaving them out of the squad. It’s really hard to see the disappointment in their eyes and I think that this game was an opportunity, given the Saturday to Wednesday turnaround, to show everyone within the squad that we trust them. We also made the point that when given an opportunity, the incoming players have to turn up and this was a tough place to come and turn up, but they all did their jobs fantastically well today.
“The reaction from the players who came in today, doesn’t surprise me because we’ve got an amazing group of players who have fantastic attitudes and a strong camaraderie and togetherness. The players understand what’s needed from them on the pitch and in training. When I say to them, that they’re having no days off and need to be in training for double sessions, they take it on the chin and get on with it without complaint and yet other days when I give them a few days off they think it’s great and they return full of energy, ready to give everything. I’d like to think that I know what makes footballers tick having been one myself for 20-odd years, and most of the time, when I question them, I get the right reaction, like today, which is pleasing.
“I hope today marks a statement in terms of our away form. However, we’ve got a few home games coming up and we have to make sure that we’re right at it in those games, in order to back up our form on the road. Wigan Athletic, who are next up for us at Ewood, are a club we know well, and we have to be ready to battle for the points in a derby game and not expect anything to be guaranteed. I see Wigan are similarly to how I saw Barnsley, a couple of weeks ago. They’re a really good footballing side with a lot of talent within their squad who are just dropping points in tight games. We have to be careful in those types of games and make sure that we give maximum effort and maximum desire to try and get the three points.”
