After Rovers tore Peterborough United apart at Ewood Park, with three first-half goals which saw Ben Brereton Díaz, grab a brace, and the fourth in the second period, boss Tony Mowbray expressed his delight over his side’s performance in their 4-0 victory.
“Every win is crucially important to the team, as it helps build their confidence and belief in each other. There are no easy games in this division and tonight was a dangerous game for us. When you look at Peterborough United’s team, they don’t really have any household names, but they’re all hard-workers. Siriki Dembélé is a bit of a standout player for them, who is capable of travelling with the ball and beating a man, but I really focussed on making sure that our mentality was right for this game and drill into the team that we had to work hard for the result and that we wouldn’t just turn up and win. We had to apply every ounce of concentration, aggression and intensity and I thought our lads did that fantastically well, tonight.
“We have a young group, and I can try and impact on their mentality more, but I feel they’re better in-front of a crowd as they feel like they’re playing for a crowd, which I’ve said for a long time. Tonight, was a ‘quieter’ night, I suppose, but it was great to hear the fans enjoying the occasion as the goals and the shots came flying in. I’m pleased that the supporters saw a good night, and I’m pleased for the players that they enjoyed the evening. We talked at half-time about the importance of clean sheets and mentioned to them that, as a defender, my only concern in the second period would be about Peterborough’s zero on the scoreboard, not our three, four or five. I think that mentality and outlook is occurring, because the defenders and Thomas (Kaminski) take a lot of pride in keeping clean sheets and it’s great that we won the second-half, 1-0. We can enjoy this victory tonight, but we have to quickly turn our focus towards Stoke City, who we travel to at the weekend. We have to rest up before starting our preparation for that game, which will no doubt be tough, but one we should look forward to and go into with a bit of confidence.
“We have a vastly different team, this season, from the one we had last year. They have different attributes and assets now and we had to find a way to maximise the attributes of the players we’ve got at the moment. We’re not playing a really high press, we’re playing a bit deeper and leaving more space to break into on the transition and when we break away, we’ve got to pick the first pass, and if we do that right, we look really threatening. We’ve done that so far, this season, at home especially and have scored good goals as a result, that’s why we’ve scored two or more goals in eight out of our ten home league games, this season. A few defenders have also chipped in this season, Daniel Ayala’s got one, Darragh (Lenihan) scored tonight as did (Harry) Pickering, so we’re just waiting for Ryan (Nyambe) to score now. Saying that, it’s good that we’re contributing from the back, but we need more from the midfield. Of course, we’ve also got Ben (Brereton Díaz) up top, who we don’t even have to mention. He’s on fire for us and although he didn’t score wonder goals tonight, he was there when he needed to be to put the ball in the back of the net; long may that continue!
“Even when Ben’s not having the best of games, he’s developing a knack of getting into the right areas, which is crucial. The confidence is there, and his goal at the weekend away at Bristol City epitomised that. His finish from such a tight angle was amazing, as he smashed it into the roof of the net with such power, but tonight he was buzzing around Tyrhys (Dolan) and smelt that he could nick the ball back and was there to tap it home into an empty net for us. I’m just pleased for Bezza, but I can’t say too much more. He’s a fantastic kid who deserves everything he gets and what he’s got coming in the future and I’m delighted for him, because of the human being that he is. I’d like to think that he’s going to be here for a few more years, but if we can’t get to the Premier League, I think Ben Brereton Díaz will have a future playing top-flight football and I hope we’ve got a few more years with him and he can enjoy being a main player for this football club, but we have to wait and see what unfolds.
“We do a lot work on delivering diagonal balls into the box with people arriving at the back-post and John (Buckley) picked Harry’s perfectly timed run out, brilliantly and it was a great header and a great goal. It’s pleasing for the coaching staff, when stuff we work throughout the week, actually results in a goal. I have to give David Lowe and Ben Benson a lot of credit for the work, fine detail and organisation they put into our set-pieces, and I’m sure they’ll be delighted that it all paid off with Darragh’s goal at the end of the first-half and the fact we also kept a clean-sheet off of set-plays.
“If anything, I think Daniel Ayala going off in the first-half is good news, because his injury is more of an ankle roll, than a muscle strain. We’ll have to wait and see what the issue is and it’s a bit too early to decide whether he can participate on Saturday or not, but I know Daniel’s a very experienced player and knows that, if there was a problem that he was struggling to push off, he needed to help the team by coming off the pitch. I put Bradley Johnson in at centre-half, because, whenever we do game preparation, Bradley often plays in the middle of a back-three, when we use it, and he looks so composed there. He picks the right pass more often than not, and he’s a big strong boy capable of handling the physicality the position requires. It was a natural to put him in there, but I’m pleased that Jan Paul van Hecke will be available again after his suspension, which leaves us with decisions to make regarding how we look on Saturday. Will we continue with a five-back or revert to a four? We’ll assess who’s available and go from there.”
