Following Rovers’ second consecutive defeat, this time at the hands of FA Cup surprise packages, Nottingham Forest, who beat the promotion hopefuls, 2-0 at Ewood Park, a desolate Tony Mowbray reflected on his side’s lacklustre display.
“It feels like some key moments went against us, but it feels like that’s been the case over the past few games, not just tonight. I think back to the Hull City defeat, where some pretty key incidents went against us and it has sort of continued, really. At Swansea City, we had some really key moments where the complexion of the game would have change had we scored first, and tonight was the same. We should have scored the first goal and missed some key moments.
“You can’t keep missing great chances and expect to win matches. There are good teams in this league and Nottingham Forest are a decent team and yet, I felt, over the course of the game, we were in the ascendency for most of that game, but we’ve somehow manufactured a way of losing it 2-0. We have to accept that, congratulate them and move on and try to improve. We have to try and get back to the form that saw us earn six or seven clean sheets on the bounce and win games. Forest’s first goal, whilst it was a great bit of talent from their lad, (James Garner), we had three around the kid, (Keinan Davis), on the halfway line ready to nick it off him and break away. He wriggled out of that press and ran towards the box which created their chance.
“The goals we’ve been conceding of late have been unlike us, and I’ve said that in recent weeks. I only say that, because the lads have set high standards over the past few months, and we’ve fallen off those standards. Tonight, wasn’t bad, it was alright. I felt as if we were in the ascendency, as I’ve mentioned and felt we had enough opportunities and chances, but for whatever reason they didn’t go in tonight. Forest are a good in-form team and they came with confidence, but I felt as if play generally went towards their goal, rather than ours, but we ended up getting nothing from the game.
“We have to stick together and continue believing that what we’re doing is okay. Although we don’t like the defeats, there’s been enough positives from them. Maybe, when we went on the unbeaten run, we came out of those games without playing as well as we know we can, but we got all three points? There are a lot of games left and we need to continue believing in each other, continue fighting hard for each other and keep picking up the points as they come along. We have to accept the defeats when they happen and make sure they don’t hurt much or sap a lot of confidence and belief out of us.
“Our strength as a team, this season, has been to score the first goal and then, teams have found it very hard to break us down. We should have scored the opening goal, and John (Buckley) knows that. He’s through, one-on-one and he’s forced a save from the goalie (Brice Samba). Ben (Brereton Díaz) has followed it up and it’s come off the post, or it was cleared off the line, I’m not sure, but the opportunities were there, and we paid for not taking them. That’s the way football goes. I think we’ve been on the other side of that coin at times, this season. We’ve played against some decent teams, and we’ve conceded chances, but managed to grab the opening goal and come home with a 1-0 win. You have to accept sometimes, that, that’s how football goes. We have to keep working hard, fighting and believing in each other, because there are no easy games in the Championship. Every game is tough, and you have to come out of these tight matches with the three points, but we didn’t do that, tonight.
“I don’t really want to go into the discussion about bookings and officials. I probably talk too much about them, as it is. I have to be careful, because I don’t want to be blaming officials for our results, over the last few weeks. There have been some really disappointing decisions, I think, over the past few games, but tonight, I thought he (referee Joshua Smith) was a bit too pernickety. This is an emotional game, where two teams towards the top end of the division are fighting. I’m not a referee, but if I was, I’d let the emotion of the game flow and let the supporters get wrapped up in the game and let footballers tackle each other, fight for the ball and use their bodies against one another. I was saying to the fourth official that it’s quite sad that the referees have never really played the game. It seems like a bit of a cop out, but they have to know what’s a foul and what’s not, when two honest footballers try to compete. Every tackle is not a foul, but there you go. I don’t want to put the officials in centre stage or make an issue of them, but did they have a good game? No, I don’t think so. Unfortunately, the officials didn’t allow ‘blood and thunder’ to take over the game and we were left with a lot of bookings, a sending off and a bit of controversy.
“I think the officials bring it on themselves, because people get annoyed and frustrated, due to some of the silly things the officials do, but as I said, I have to be careful, because I can’t stand here and blame the officials for our defeats. The first goal, tonight, should have never gone in, because we should have poked the ball away when we swarmed around their player. I thought we were a real credit with 10 men, we had a real go and were really positive. Okay, we conceded a penalty right at the death, which is frustrating for us, because it leaves a bit of a false impression on the result, because it was a pretty close game, but I don’t think Forest were ever comfortable.
“This team will give everything, but there’s still a bit of naivety in their performance. I was telling them in the dressing room that, even though we were 2-0 down in injury time, why are we all charging forward? They had a three versus one breakaway and we could have easily lost by three or four goals and those kinds of results can sap energy, belief and confidence out of you. You have to be careful. I said after the previous game about how young players are. They have to learn and grow together, and they have to know when to be really aggressive and positive with their play and get men forward and get it into the box and they have to know how many men they should be keeping behind the ball, so that the game doesn’t become an end-to-end tie, because you can lose those games as easily as you can win them. At 2-0 down, we had to be careful, but we still had chances after that. Tyrhys (Dolan) had a shot that fell nicely for their goalie, Sam (Gallagher) had a header and a strike blocked. We huffed and puffed but didn’t ultimately get over the line.
“To keep the confidence up, you have to stick together. The strength that we have within the group is their togetherness. It’s quite an emotional area in that dressing room. I was talking to them about personality. Some of the lads who have just joined our club, have to find some more personality. Lewis (Travis) and Darragh (Lenihan) are in there shouting like banshees. That’s what you need. You need people who care about the result, and we need a few more, I think. In my mind, as I’ve said to them, we have two or three people who are really passionate and emotional about winning matches, but we need five or six to be a team that wins every week. That’s what have to find and bring into the club, in order to grow the personalities of some of the players.”
