After Rovers failed to make their chances count and were forced to settle for a 0-0 home draw against Millwall, despite the visitors not even notching a shot on the night, Tony Mowbray reflected on, what was ultimately, a miserable evening at Ewood Park.
“We had everything today, bar the finishing touch. There was some really good play, today, particularly in the first-half where we created two amazing chances to score. Joe Rankin-Costello has a great opportunity, but he whips it past the post and Sam Gallagher gets a tap-in, really, but I think it came off his studs, rather than his side-foot, after a brilliant cross from John Buckley. I think, as well as that, we showed some really good play. We went 95 or so, minutes without them having a shot and stopping them from threatening on the transition, which was really good because they’re a really good transitional side, which was shown by the fact they’ve won five in a row, yet they came here and didn’t even have a shot at our goal.
“It’s a frustrating night for us. You can’t expect, against really good teams, to create chance after chance, but when these really good chances come along, you have to stick one of them in the net. When you do that, that forces the opposition to over-gamble for the equaliser, which in-turn opens up the opportunity for you to get more good chances on the transition. The longer tonight’s game went on, the more Millwall sat in and were happy with the point. We should have been 2-0 up at half-time and then that would have forced them to come and chase the game, which might have seen us score more.
“I’ve talked to the lads about the positives. We have to stick together and keep going. We’re really disappointed that we didn’t get all three points tonight, but we’ve got two more home games, back-to-back, after this that we have to target maximum points from. If we take seven from nine out of this run, then I’m happy. I would have taken that before tonight had kicked-off. Maybe we have to put the point in the bag and be happy that we didn’t lose, considering Millwall came here on a run of five straight wins? Let’s try and beat Bristol City at the weekend and then let’s throw everything at Derby County next Tuesday and see how we get on.
“We have to keep believing that if we keep creating these types of chances, we’ll turn them into goals and points, because we have very good players, and they keep getting into the right areas. If we were in Millwall’s position and had come away from tonight without a shot in the game, I would have expected criticism about how the team ‘don’t look like scoring without the likes of Ben (Brereton Díaz), Bradley (Dack), Reda (Khadra) or Dilan (Markanday).’ Well, we had some really good chances tonight, and yet, you can’t have ten good chances in a game, we had three glorious chances to score. We could have won 3-0 tonight, easily, but unfortunately, we missed them. My job is to keep believing in them and keep them believing in what their doing and to keep their morale high by encouraging them, rather than telling them that they’re all terrible and that they can’t keep missing chances. I keep encouraging them and telling them how well we played and how well we did. We restricted a really good side, who’ve won five on the bounce, to zero shots, which is brilliant. We have to keep going and look forward to the next game. Hopefully the supporters stick with this team. I keep repeating it, but we do have a young team who are trying their socks off for everybody, and they deserve some reward at the end of the season, but of course, we have to earn it. We have to find a way to win games, but despite giving it our best shot tonight, we didn’t quite get over the line.
“I’ve said to the lads that they have to embrace the pressure of a win and I think they did tonight. Millwall are a really dangerous team and the more I watch them, even though they don’t always hold the most possession, they’re really threatening on the transition, and they break away really quickly. Jed Wallace, in my opinion, is one of the better players in this league and he picks wonderful passes, and he breaks incisively, and we restricted him really well, tonight. We need to keep focussed on the positives. Hopefully we get more options back to help us in the coming days and weeks. We have to keep believing, because if we win on Saturday everything will be rosy again and everyone will feel great. I know the league is really tightening and teams can catch us if they win their games in hand, but I’d rather have the points than the games. We have 58 points and I think we’ll be okay for the playoffs once we hit 72 or 73 points. Hopefully we hit more than that, but we’re not far away, so we have to keep focussed, keep going and keep pushing hard.
“I think there’s a fair chance that Bradley Dack might make the bench on Saturday. He’s played three games for the under-23s and scored four goals in that time. I’d have to say to the supporters who watch this interview, ‘don’t expect the Bradley Dack we saw before his injuries’ and that’s because he’s not match fit. As long as we all feel, collectively, that we’re not putting him at risk of injury, what I do know is that, if he was out there tonight, if a chance fell his way, he would have put it in the back of the net. That’s not disrespect to the lads who are out there, but Dack’s an amazing technical footballer, off both feet, and maybe it’s worth having a player who’s not match fit and can’t run for 90 minutes, come off the bench if we’re desperate for a goal, like we did tonight. We’ll see what we decide, but ideally, I would have liked to have given him more games to get his fitness levels back up, but we need to score. We need someone who can actually put the chances away when they arrive and Bradley’s shown he’s capable of that, both before his injuries and during his spell with the under-23s.
“Although that news will give everyone associated with this football club a big lift, I’m just conscious of the fans knowing that they shouldn’t expect this amazing, brilliant footballer, like he was previously, so soon. He’s been out for nearly two years and has played less than a dozen games in that time. Let’s be careful, but what I do know is that, if we create the chances for him, he will score.”
