After Rovers saw their seven-game unbeaten run vanish at the hands of a late Famara Diédhiou goal in their 1-0 away loss against Bristol City on Wednesday evening, Tony Mowbray offered his opinion on his side’s display, to the club’s media team.
“To be honest, I couldn’t see Bristol City scoring. We sort of controlled the game, but it was a bit too end-to-end for my liking, because they did manage to craft a few half-chances with a few opportunities to cut it back in the box. It wasn’t a game where I felt totally in control, but I didn’t think we were going to lose it. I thought we could maybe sneak it 1-0, because we had the better, more clear-cut chances. We snatched at a few things tonight and we were probably hitting things a bit too early, from a bit too far out, at times and things got a bit frustrating for us as chances came and went.
“I don’t want to get too down on the lads, because we’ve had a successive long journeys down south and it’s not easy to get the preparation and practice or training time in on the grass, to help put across what we expected from the team tonight, although I know that every team has the same problem. We were alright tonight, we had enough opportunities, but we ultimately didn’t win, so we just have to accept it and move on and look forward to Norwich City at Ewood, at the weekend.
“I said to the lads that I felt as if we were a bit loose, tonight. It was as if we were lacking a spark in the side. Generally, we’re really sharp and when we break away on the counter, the passes are crisp, the timing of the runs are perfect, and it all leads to a goal. Yet, tonight, it always looked as if it was getting away from us a bit. It was a case of ‘a bad touch here, a bad touch there’ and we weren’t as clinical as we’ve been recently and tonight, we paid the price late on.
“There were a few things wrong with the goal, in my opinion from a defensive perspective. I’ve gone through it with the lads in the dressing room and spoke about where I think certain individuals went wrong or should have done a bit better. Daniel Ayala, who was free, headed the ball back into the midfield, rather than flicking it back to Thomas (Kaminski). Although Thomas should have probably called for it, Danny’s headed it back into the ‘fight zone’ of a midfield which starts their attack. The ball’s in the air a long time on the cross and I felt as if Ryan (Nyambe) should have dealt with it better, because their lad (Callum O’Dowda), just dropped the ball back into the danger zone on the stretch and it’s ricocheted into their scorer’s (Famara Diédhiou) path and he’s put it in. It was a goal out of nothing, really. It wasn’t as if they’d cut us open, or they’d done anything spectacular, they just lumped it into the box, and we didn’t defend it well enough.
“Tonight, we were punished because we weren’t 100%. I think, if we’d have been at our sharpest, brightest and cleverest, like I know we can be, then we could have scored a few goals tonight and won this game. Although that’s how we’d envisaged it, I don’t want to be too harsh on them. We seem to be on this coach travelling, forever, to be honest and then spending each away trip in hotels, it’s not ideal. We’re not going to get home until three in the morning, but the games keep on coming. I’ve given them the day off tomorrow, because I’d just be building their fatigue up if I told them to come in at nine, tomorrow, meaning they’d barely get some sleep. That, however, means we only have the Friday to prepare for the visit of Norwich City on Saturday. Saying that, a lot of the preparation has been done throughout the season and the team should know how we function and what we do, so hopefully we can pick the right team and get a result against Norwich.
“I hinted against Millwall, although that was at home, that maybe all the travelling and no time on the grass in training had caught up with us, because we were off the pace that day, despite winning it late on. It would be nice to have a break or have a week without a midweek game. I think our schedule changes to Saturday-Saturday in a few weeks and I hope that will help refresh the team and give us an opportunity to get the balance between work and rest, right. I know that Bradley (Dack), Lewis (Travis), Ben (Brereton) and a few others aren’t far away and that will give us an opportunity to refresh the team and hopefully we’ll push on and get stronger as the season unfolds.”
