Blackburn’s pre-season got off to a winning start with a 2-1 win at National League side Barrow on Saturday.
Craig Conway’s first half goal had put Blackburn ahead but a Barrow equaliser looked as if it would see the game end in a draw – Danny Graham grabbed an added time winner for Rovers.
Having used 22 players in total as Tony Mowbray looked to give as many players as possible some minutes. Fielding a different XI in each half, the boss admitted the players looked a bit ‘heavy legged and pretty tired’ after 10 days of intensive training at Brockhall.
But the main thing for him at Holker Street was the fact the players came through without any picking up injuries.
Mowbray told the Official Website: ‘I’m pleased that they’ve all got through it and there’s no injuries. It’s the first game of pre-season and you’ve got expectations of them, yet really they played pretty heavy-legged and pretty tired. They’ve run their socks off, so it was a good test.’
He went on to thank our hosts Barrow for the challenge they gave us.
‘I have to say thank you to Barrow for giving us a good test and making it difficult. They asked questions of us, like lots of teams in League One are going to do. They put lots of balls in our box and we dealt with it ok, apart from trying to play offside for their goal.’
Summer arrivals Peter Whittingham, Richie Smallwood, Bradley Dack and Ben Gladwin were all involved and the boss thought the ‘did fine.’
‘They all did fine. They’re going to be fine, I know they are. I’ve watched them in training and they’re working really hard.’
Adding: ‘I think that first game always catches your legs out. You think you’re ok because you’re doing controlled exercises in training, looking quite sharp and bright, and then it comes to a game where you’ve got to stretch your legs out and it’s quite tiring, especially on a hot day like today. They’ll be fine. They’ll get judged over the 46 games of the league season.’
