Gallagher drama is Tony’s big concern
SAM GALLAGHER was rushed to hospital with a suspected punctured lung as the pressure built on Rovers’ Tony Mowbray after Alex Mighten’s goal was enough to give Forest victory.
Gallagher fell badly in a collision and at half-time was coughing up blood.
Blackburn’s doctor examined the forward and immediately sent him to hospital for X-rays.
Rovers then blew the chance of ending their losing streak when top scorer Adam Armstrong missed a penalty, leaving boss Mowbray with four successive defeats.
Blackburn fans are growing restless about the slump.
But Mowbray said: “I’m more concerned about Gallagher. I think it was the way he fell in a collision, he fell flat to the ground.
“The game? It was a harsh result on us.
“We just have to keep going until we are told not to because they don’t like the fact that we’ve lost four on the bounce.”
You would have put money on Armstrong equalising Mighten’s
26th-minute opener, which took a deflection to get past Rovers keeper Thomas Kaminski.
Armstrong hit his penalty well but Forest keeper Brice Samba dived to his right to save.
“Samba’s save was very good and up against a top striker in this division,” said Forest manager Chris Hughton.
“He’s not only got to guess the right way, he’s got to be firm enough to stop it.”
NOTTM FOREST: Samba 8; Christie 6, Figueiredo 6, Worrall 7, Ribeiro 6; Cafu
6 (Yates (69th) 5), Garner 7; Knockaert
6 (Blackett 87th), Krovinovic 6, Mighten
7 (Freeman (69th) 5); Murray 6 (Taylor
(59th) 5)
BLACKBURN: Kaminski 6; Nyambe
7 (Bennett 90th), Harwood-Bellis 7, Branthwaite 7, Bell 6; Travis 6 (Rothwell
87th), Davenport 6 (Buckley 87th); Gallagher 6 (Dack (46th) 5), Elliott 6, Brereton 6 (Dolan (64th) 5); Armstrong 6
STAR MAN: Brice Samba
REF: K Stroud
ALAN STUBBS believes David Moyes has opened West Ham’s owners’ eyes to what can be achieved at the club.
The current Hammers squad appears to have the perfect mix of guts and guile after years of underachieving while carrying star names who lost their bottle when the going got tough.
Stubbs, 49, doesn’t need to be a fly on the wall in the West Ham dressing room to know what Moyes is saying to his players.
He was at the heart of the Everton defence when they finished fourth under the Scot in the 2004-05 season.
They pipped Merseyside rivals Liverpool by three points to secure a place in the Champions League.
More than 15 years later and Moyes has
West Ham primed for Europe.
They went into this weekend sitting fifth – four points off Manchester United in second – and a win at home to Tottenham today will keep Moyes in the mix for repeating his Everton heroics.
Stubbs (above) said: “We had a great team spirit at Everton and we knew that people were looking at us thinking, ‘Nah, no chance, they will fall away’.
“But we kept churning out wins and David kept us focused.
“He was always on to us, we knew it was about proving people wrong. It got to a stage after Christmas where he said to us, ‘Listen, we can do this, we can make the top four here’.
“It was still about going into every game and giving everything we had but he made us believe there was something there at the end of it all. And we pulled it off.”
The Premier League landscape has changed dramatically in the decade and a half since with television money increasing and billionaire owners becoming the norm.
David Gold and David Sullivan are part of such a club but Stubbs insists the West Ham hierarchy have hit the jackpot with Moyes.
“David Moyes is doing what David Moyes does best, he’s rebuilding and improving a club.
“I think the West Ham owners got carried away with themselves before.
“They wanted a big-name manager who would bring razzmatazz and sexy names to the football club. That’s not what the club is all about.
“It’s the same at Everton. Mr Moshiri threw an absolute bundle of money at Ronald Koeman and we saw how disastrous that was.
“You need to know what the club and the fanbase are about. “It’s great to have a few star names but fans want to see decent football and to see their team win.
“They want to see them working hard with that bit of class to go with it.
“But they don’t want to see mercenaries coming to the club for the wrong reasons because that’s been their problem, they’ve always been a Jekyll-and-Hyde type.
“When it suited them they could put in a good performance against anyone but when it didn’t, they would fall like a pack of cards.
“David has given them that bit of bite and grit.
“He has his belief and his mojo back.”