Prior to Rovers’ short trip across Lancashire to face high-flying Wigan Athletic, the club’s media team sat down with Tony Mowbray to allow the boss to discuss his thoughts on the highly anticipated affair as well as what he thought Wigan brought to the game.
“I think that based on the results Wigan have produced at home; it suggests that it’s going to be a really tough game. When you watch them play as a team, I think they are very good on the ball, they move it around the pitch well, they ask lots of questions of the opposition, they’re very controlled and they’ve got some individual talent in players that are exceptionally good at this level. It’s a game that we have to really focus on and have to be good tactically, but I’ve said to the players that we should go and enjoy it and test ourselves against their calibre of players.
“We just have to let the game unfold in-front of us, I think we have to go and play our game and I’m sure they’ll play how they play; it’s difficult to predict how the game will be. I think they, by the nature of how they play, will have a lot of the ball, we will make sure that we carry a goal threat, make sure we know where the space is on the pitch in order to try and exploit them. We went to places like Bradford and Scunthorpe and didn’t have as much of the ball as the opposition, yet we got the three points. It would be nice if we got the three points of course, and I think we should go there, be positive and take the game to them.
“I’m not sure if an open game helps us, they have some good technically gifted players, players who can keep the ball probably better than we can, they’ve also got a lot of quality in their team and I hope that we, at times, have more athleticism than them; which is why I think that it’ll be a pretty tactical game. Although I think that they keep the ball better than we do, that doesn’t mean that they’ll be more of a threat on goal than us. I think it’s going to be a good game with a lot of good players on the pitch for this level and it’s a game that we’re looking forward to; we see it as a big challenge but one where we believe we can come out on top.
“I always expect to create chances especially in the home games with the way we set the team up. I would expect us to play the majority of the match in the opposition half, with balls going into the box, whilst also creating chances and opportunities on goal. I’d be pretty disappointed and worried if we weren’t doing those things but it’s been a different case; generally, we haven’t been creating a host of chances away from home. We have to decide somewhere along the line, when the team settles down, whether we change the philosophy for away games; it’s been getting us results in this early part of the season, yet it’s not particularly been comfortable to watch. We’ve been very sound defensively and yet we’ve been able to nick the odd game by a goal to nil. I’m not sure how this game is going to pan out, but they’re a good football team, however we’ve also got some good players to combat that, so let’s go and take on the challenge.”
Mowbray was asked, in relation to his point about changing the philosophy of the side in games away from home, whether the aspect of transforming the way of playing would be a difficult process to get across.
“I think it’s an easy process with this group of players. They’ve managed to switch the philosophy from the away games into the home games and I’ve seen it on the training ground all week, as we’ve changed the training schedule for this week. We’ve had four days of building into the game and we’ve done plenty of work, so they all know what’s expected of them and what’s coming from the opposition and I told them to trust themselves to get the job done.
“I don’t think the game is any bigger due to the respective positions in the league table. I think if this was the home game against Wigan (in March) with a dozen games to go with a potential gap to open as a result, then I could be concerned about the magnitude of the game, but with over thirty games to go, I don’t think there’s any need to concern ourselves too much as the game isn’t defining for our season. The positive aspect of this picture is that, it’s one of the two chances we get to affect what Wigan do this season. They’re a good team who have won five on the bounce or something like that, they carry a threat and they’re defensively strong, yet we’ve done alright this year and we’re gradually getting stronger as a team. It’s a game I’m looking forward to, I hope the players are as well, but we have to be conscious that we’re going away from home to a team who, based on their statistics so far this season, should be finishing inside the top two, let’s hope that we’re the team that finishes above them if they finish second.
“It’s only nice for the fans if we win, I don’t think they enjoy it as much if we don’t win. It’ll be an interesting game which will keep you on the edge of your seat, yet if I was a fan, I’d obviously be going along wanting my team to win, but I’d also be going, knowing that I’d get to see some good football in the process.”
