MOWBRAY CALLS FOR FIREPOWER
TONY Mowbray wants to see Blackburn Rovers offer more in attack when they travel to Huddersfield Town today.
The Rovers boss admitted the draw with Birmingham City was a “poor game”.
In a largely forgettable match, both sides toiled for fluency and exchanged penalties by Adam Armstrong and Kerim Mrabti early in the second half.
But Mowbray expects more from his side in the final third, despite an impressive run of having lost just once in the last 12 home games.
He said: “Let’s not beat about the bush, it wasn’t a very good match.
“But when we got 1-0 up from the penalty, I was struggling to see how they were going to score an equaliser.
“Whether we say it was a poor decision from Amari’i (Bell) or a poor decision from the officials, it doesn’t really matter now. We’re stood here after two dropped points in a game that was always going to be difficult for us.
“Their selection suggested they were coming here to make sure they didn’t take another 3-0 beating like they did in their last away game.
“I don’t know what else to say. It was a poor game, I didn’t enjoy watching it.
“We just have to move on. We’ll be better as we move forward, so let’s see how we go.”
Birmingham fell behind ten minutes after the restart, but only had themselves to blame as Wes Harding’s ill-judged mis-timed tackle brought down Sam Gallagher, giving referee Robert Jones an easy decision to award a spot-kick.
Armstrong did the honours, slamming the ball into the bottom left corner for his sixth goal of the season.
In the season of giving, it was Blackburn’s turn eight minutes later, when Bell’s outstretched leg upended Jacques Maghoma. Mrabti stepped up and sent Christian Walton the wrong way, placing into the right-hand corner of the net.
The Blues have now won just one of their past ten and haven’t kept a clean sheet since October – when they defeated Blackburn.
But Pep Clotet hailed the resilience of his side to come back from giving a penalty away as they prepare to travel to Huddersfield. He said: “I don’t know if it’s a penalty or not, but the linesman saw it. I thought Wes had the position, but unfortunately he lost the position and was forced into a tackle.
“But the good thing is it showed the resilience the squad had because I thought we created clearer chances.
“We had the one v one with Kerim, Maghoma had a couple of chances in the first half, and Jukey (Lukas Jutkiewicz) when he was grabbed on the corner and could not put a good header on it. In the second half as well, the side showed resilience. Despite being a goal down, I saw a stronger Birmingham. We kept attacking to the end.
“We had a more solid display, but attacked quicker than usual.”