Another Brad day at office for Rowett
TONY MOWBRAY knows he is going to face a massive battle to keep hold of Bradley Dack – but he wants him to be part of his Premier League masterplan.
Dack grabbed his sixth goal of the season to underline his status as one of the Championship’s most wanted forwards to pile the pressure on Stoke’s Gary Rowett.
It helped move Rovers to the fringes of the play-offs but they had to rely on Saido Berahino’s late penalty miss to seal a second away win.
The play-off spots are something Mowbray believes Rovers should be aiming for but he has asked Dack to be patient and buy into his long-term plans.
Blackburn turned down bids from West Brom in the summer and Mowbray knows the former Gillingham ace is ambitious to prove himself at the highest level.
He said: “Bradley has a special combination with Danny Graham and he scores goals. He’s not a No.10 who just wants to float in behind.
“He wants to get in the box and score. He is helping us become a club on the up. That’s what we want.
“I hope in three transfer windows we are winning games regularly in this division and challenging for the top six. I will be disappointed if we are not.”
When Dack missed the chance to give Rovers a 4-0 lead, hitting the post after Jack Butland saved his first effort, Mowbray could never have thought it may have been a costly miss.
But Berahino scrambled home fellow sub Peter Crouch’s knockdown and set up Tom Ince for a second goal in a minute.
Berahino then smashed his spot-kick against the bar after he had been fouled by Darragh Lenihan.
Rowett said: “Defensively we are too soft. We have conceded 16 goals this season and 14 of them have been our mistakes.”
Dack guided a low shot beyond Butland for the opener and Graham broke clear to bag a second.
The game looked up when Dack set up Harrison Reed for his first goal for the club – before the madness of the last 10 minutes.