After Rovers picked up their first back-to-back away wins since April 2019, after beating Middlesbrough at the Riverside live on Sky Sports via a 1-0 scoreline, Boro legend and Rovers boss Tony Mowbray offered his thoughts on the tight game that saw his side narrowly emerge with the three points.
“It wasn’t a very good game, but any win is a big win. That’s two away wins and away clean sheets on the bounce now, but I didn’t enjoy today’s match. It was very stop-start. It seemed as if play was stopped, every time there was a challenge and with all due respect, Middlesbrough are a physical team full of men and I think you have to stand up and be counted against them and I think our very young team did that today. I was very pleased with how our lads went about their business today as they showed a range of attributes in order to get the three points. It felt as if we had six really young players in the midfield and up-front and that’s not even including young (Jarrad) Branthwaite. It felt like a really young team playing against a team of men and yet, we found a way to get the job done.
“I’m delighted for Joe Rothwell, because we’ve spent this week talking to him about how he needs to get into the box in order to impact games more. Although the goals he’s scored so far this season have been brilliant goals of high technical quality, I want him to start scoring more scruffy goals inside the box. Today’s wasn’t scruffy because he produced a great finish, but he scored it from inside the box, which is what he needs to start doing on a more regular basis. Our goal was like an ‘Oasis in a Desert of Mediocrity’ really, because the overall game was poor due to the nature of it. That’s probably because I like my teams to hold possession of the ball and yet, Middlesbrough don’t allow you to do that, they play man for man, hassle you all over the pitch and make things very personal.
“We saw the game out well, today. I watched Boro’s 1-0 defeat to Birmingham City, last week and they pulverised Birmingham towards the end, by continuing to put balls into the box, and yet I thought we saw it out well and yet, I thought that we were the team more likely to score, on the break with the likes of (Adam) Armstrong, (Sam) Gallagher and (Ben) Brereton looked really potent, yet the second goal wasn’t to be. The substitutes all played their part in this game. I play Harvey Elliott because he has the technique to take on a man and pick the ‘wonder pass’ out for Armstrong to run onto and yet, he can’t run in-behind like Gallagher or Brereton can. They’re all different types of threats, different types of qualities which we need within a squad and my job is to try and look at the opposition and pick the right threat for each game that will give us the best chance of winning. Sometimes, Harvey has had to sit on the bench because I believed that the likes of Gallagher or Brereton will pulverise a specific full-back if they get in-behind and yet, other times, against speed and power I’ll let Harvey dance around them with his left-foot and turn them inside-out with his skills and his reverse passes. The most important thing from today was the fact we found a way to win. It was pleasing for me to come back here and get a victory, even though this is the team I supported as a boy and the club whose results I always have a glance at after each round of games.
“I haven’t seen Jarrad’s challenge, or Thomas’ (Kaminski) save before our goal back, to be honest, so I can’t give a qualified verdict on either. Neil (Warnock) made enough noise about the challenge and if he’s right in saying that their boy has gone to hospital off the back of it, then that’s really unfortunate and we wish him well. Jarrad’s a young boy, of course, and he’s not going around kicking anybody on purpose. I’m not the referee, the referee is the referee and if he’s made the decision to wave play on, he’s done that thinking it was an honest challenge for the ball. Thomas’ save? I can’t remember it to be honest, but what I do know is that we’ve got a top-class goalie and I mean top-class. He’s a brilliant human being, he’s the calmest man in the building and I’m delighted that the recruitment department managed to sign him for this football club because he’s a joy to work with everyday and when he makes important saves, it doesn’t surprise me because I know his quality.
“I don’t think (Lewis) Travis was at his best today, but I think he’s getting back to it slowly. He was miles better today than he was last week where I nearly took him off at half-time. That performance was more like the Trav that we all know and I wounding him up before the game in order for him know what he was coming up against today, given that they were snarling men who were going to come for him and he needed to rise to the challenge, which he did. I’m pleased with them all, to be honest. It’s a great result and they’re all delighted in the dressing room. We have a massive game against Luton Town next, who, for some reason we can’t seem to beat in recent times. I watched them today in the FA Cup away at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea and although they lost 3-1, they looked like a snarling outfit who were ready to come at their opposition, but also had the ability to play on the front-foot, full of energy and looked capable of causing teams problems. It’s a big game for us and we need to be ready to battle against them in order to get the three points that would take us closer towards our aim of finishing inside the top six.”
