Walking on water
MOWBRAY BABES MAKING A SPLASH
TONY MOWBRAY’S water babes are looking to make a promotion splash after coming out on top in this tempestuous Lancashire derby.
With an average age of around 23, yesterday’s starting line up was easily the youngest in the Championship.
And in monsoon conditions which at times looked like bringing the game to a premature end, Rovers’ youngsters came of age to strengthen their claims for a promotion play-off spot.
It was 22-yearold red hot Chile star Ben Brereton
Diaz who came up with the goal to knock the stuffing out of their neighbours who had made it a real scrap as hostilities threatened to boil over.
Reda Khadra wriggled free in the 53rd minute to send in the perfect cross for BreretonDiaz to glance a header past Daniel Iversen for his 17th league goal of the season.
Mowbray (below) will be hoping that The Venky’s, the club’s owners, hold their nerve during the January window with a number of Premier League clubs circling.
In the summer they sold
Adam Armstrong to Southampton after a 28 Championship goal haul.
But Brereton-Diaz has filled the void with Rovers looking to return to the
Premier League after a 10year absence.
Mowbray said: “I would like to give him a new contract. The football club has to grow. He is a great kid who works really hard. If Ben goes my first question will be how much will I be getting to spend?”
Preston may be well off the promotion pace but they can be a handful as they proved by beating Bournemouth and drawing last week with Fulham.
They had strong claims for an 82nd-minute penalty for a hand ball
against Ryan Nyambe but that was waved away by referee Gavin Ward who upset both managers.
Manager Frankie McAvoy said: “I’ve seen the incident back and the lad’s hand is well away from his
body. I didn’t think there was much in the game. The one bit of quality was Brereton-Diaz’s header.”
A scrappy first half had ended with Mowbray shown a yellow card after reacting angrily to Ward seemingly changing his mind after initially giving his side the ball after
accidently blocking a run by Joe Rothwell. Not that the warning cooled his temper, the Rovers boss ferociously tossing his bottle of water onto the ground.
His mood would have been even darker except for goalkeeper Aynsley Pears pulling off a smart save at his near post after Ched Evans had connected with a 33rd-minute low corner from Ben Whiteman.
But when he looks at the league table, with Rovers sitting fourth, life will not seem so bad for the Championship’s longest-serving manager.