After witnessing his side claim back-to-back victories, following Rovers’ 4-0 away triumph away at Derby County, a delighted Tony Mowbray offered his thoughts on his side’s all-round play, which included Rovers claiming their first back-to-back clean sheets of the season.
“Today’s result was emphatic, and I think the lads simply carried on from where they left off last week against Wycombe Wanderers. Pride Park is a really difficult place to come and play football at, and Derby County themselves are a really tough team. They’re well coached by a top manager (Phillip Cocu) who’s coached some of the best teams all around the world. We felt their quality for the first five or so minutes and then when we got on top, we stuck to our gameplan and we managed to take the ball off them in their own half and put it into the back of their net. We had a pretty ruthless ten or 15 minute spell, but then the game settled down a bit. I thought Thomas (Kaminski) did well, but I also thought the centre-half pairing of Darragh (Lenihan) and Derrick (Williams) did well, because given how good of a team they are, who are able to create a lot of chances, particularly at home, we managed to see those potential opportunities off. It looked like we could have finished today with more than the four we got, because we had a few chances particularly from Adam (Armstrong) that forced them into some brilliant blocks and saves. We shouldn’t be greedy, even though we probably could have had more than the four we got, because beating Derby County 4-0 at Pride Park is some result. This result will certainly raise a few eyebrows around the country. I think the team warranted this result today. I’m not sure what the perspective was outside of the dugout, but from where I was, it looked like we deserved to win this game, due to the lad’s effort, drive, work-rate, concentration, organisation and their clinical nature.
“We probably played our best football during the period in which our goals came, and yet, you have to still see off their threats after that. You still have to put the ball into the net and keep doing what we’ve been doing. I hope that the people watching at home, although we’d of course prefer them to be here singing their hearts out, can see the difference in the team and the way we’re asking them to play. We hope they can see the ability to either build-up play and score great goals or nick it off teams and score great goals on the transition. We have flexibility in how we choose to operate. If we’re playing against the top teams in this division, we can play deeper and breakaway with Armstrong, (Tyrhys) Dolan, (Ben) Brereton, (Sam) Gallagher and (Joe) Rothwell. It’s exciting at the moment, although we’re disappointed that Joe Rankin-Costello picked up a hamstring injury, because the depth of the squad is important. I thought Joe was really good today and unfortunately, he’s tweaked his hamstring, but to have Ryan Nyambe as a substitute is really good, but we need that kind of cover in all the positions.
“The clean sheet was huge for the whole team, but more so for the back four and the ‘keeper. It’s huge because it gives them the confidence and the knowledge that we’re capable of going anywhere in this league and keep clean sheets, as well as attack like we do. Sometimes, when you score goals, like in the Bournemouth game, where we scored two and could have ended up with more, we went and conceded three which ultimately lost us the game. That makes it easy for people to criticise the team and label them as ‘too adventurous’. I don’t think that’s the case, because we’re defending really well behind the ball when we’re attacking, and I think their efforts and the fact they put their bodies on the line today, warranted a clean sheet. It was a great clean sheet for the team.
“Games are 90 minutes long, and the goalline clearance by Darragh, in the early stages proved to be vital. They pushed on a bit in the second-half, after their early first-half flurry, but despite that we looked comfortable and threatening on the break. I thought it was a good game, and the performance levels of the team across the board was high and we now have to turn our concentrations to Cardiff City at Ewood Park, next week.
“The midfield was brilliant today. I was sat thinking earlier on that (Lewis) Travis has been one of our best players over the past year or so and yet here we are, having scored nine goals and conceded none in the two games we’ve played without him, which will probably have him worried! He shouldn’t be worried though, because he’s an amazing footballer for us, but I think (Lewis) Holtby’s stepped up to the mark in his deeper role, rather than the No.10 role he was in last season. I think Rothwell showed his amazing talent and work-ethic today and I think we’re okay in that midfield department at the moment. (Jacob) Davenport is showing me on the training ground that he’s desperate to play, (John) Buckley has shown, by his classy assist for Armstrong last week, what a wonderful footballer he is, and Elliott Bennett came on today for when we needed to see the game out. Elliott has an amazing personality that he brings to the pitch in order to help the team.”
