After Rovers fell to a narrow 3-2 opening day defeat away on the South Coast against recently relegated Bournemouth, Blues boss Tony Mowbray offered his thoughts on a game that could have easily fallen in Rovers’ favour, had luck been on their side.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt that we deserved something from this game. It was a really good performance. I was just telling them in the dressing room, that I was proud of their display, today. Their work-rate and the way they stuck together and asked questions of their defence, was good. They came back from the adversity of conceding twice to draw level, and at 2-2, I genuinely thought that there was only going to be one winner, and that it would be us. We managed to score the goal that made it 3-2 through Lewis Holtby, yet he was marginally offside, but to then go on to lose it, was very frustrating and disappointing for us. There were plenty of positives from today and lots of good stuff to build upon, despite the result. I just told them in the dressing room that, ‘if that’s the benchmark for performance levels this season, then we’re going to win a lot of matches.’ We should be proud to move forward, without finding any negativity from today’s game. We need to keep going and look forward to the challenges as they come along.
“The work-rate, performance, desire and effort are all there, I believe, and the benchmark is set. I do feel that we still need one or two fresh faces to help the group. There are a few feeling it today, due to the intensity of the game, our high physical demands and the hot weather conditions down here on the South Coast. I’ve said to the lads that they should be proud after this game, because the chances they created and the threat they carried were great, and yet, we played against a team with high quality Premier League footballers who carried obvious threats of their own. That’s how this division is when you get relegated teams from the Premier League, but that’s okay. I have to give credit to Bournemouth because they stuck at it, today. I thought the way we got after them, sparked them into life, because it was a really tight, aggressive, intense match which we’ve unfortunately lost, but we could have easily been stood here talking about a 3-2 victory, but that’s football.
“The step inside and finish from (Arnaut) Danjuma, for the winning goal was amazing. You do hope that your players can do that, but we scored a great strike through (Bradley) Johnson today, although the ‘keeper (Mark Travers) was probably at fault for that one. I think we had some good opportunities, that one at the death by Corry (Evans) jumps out at me. Did we deserve that to go in? Yes, I think we did. Yet, it didn’t happen for us. We just have to take it on the chin, get back on the bus and get ready for Newcastle United on Tuesday.
“We’re disappointed of course, that we’ve lost three goals today which can happen against this type of opponent, and yet I thought Thomas (Kaminski) did okay today. I think he’s going to be fine for us, he’s a man who knows what he’s all about, he’s steady and he’s organised. I’ve told him that we’re playing quickly and out from the back, but we’re not going to do it riskily and play silly little passes in and around our box in order to invite pressure. I thought he was fine today, but I’m disappointed for him that we conceded three goals on his debut. I’m not stood here thinking, ‘oh he should have done better here or there’, I thought he was fine. There were a lot of good performances all over the pitch, we just have to keep our heads up and keep going. I was telling the team earlier on today to look at how Brentford were last season. They won something like, one of their first ten games and yet, they knew they were a decent side, just like we know we’re a decent side, and they made it to the playoff final. Bournemouth will know they’ve come up against a decent side today. We know that we were pretty good today and if we play like that more often than not, this season, we’ll win plenty of games.
“I hope that, the more games we play, the fitter, stronger and more cohesive they’ll become. I thought the substitutes made a big impact today. I thought Tyrhys (Dolan) did what he does, he’s clever with the ball, he’s positive and he can beat people with his pace. I just want to see Joe (Rothwell) pick the ball up and run. I don’t mind him losing the ball occasionally, as long as he chases and tries to win it back. I think Rothwell’s positivity and skill of being able to pick the ball up and run past three, four or five in one dribble will really help our team. He has to show me the work ethic that cements him in the starting line-up, however. At this moment, he’s a pretty good substitute as he showed today, but it wasn’t quite enough for us. I’m positive after today’s performance because it’s always a tough game coming here, as our cup game against them a few years ago showed. They knew that they had a tough game that night, as they know that they’ve had a tough one today, but we can’t dwell on it, we need to take the positives and move onto the next game.”
