Blackburn’s week in Austria is now coming to an end. Rovers now have a final day of training before a return to the UK.
Pre-season continued with a friendly against Sparta Prague, played in Salzburg on Friday afternoon, but it was the Czech club who ran out 1-0 winners.
Marc Janko scored the winner for Sparta Prague in the second half but Tony Mowbray’s told the Official Website he was pleased with what he saw and the challenge was exactly what he felt Blackburn needed.
‘I thought it was a really good exercise and we got out of it what we wanted. I thought there were spells where we were really good, and I thought they were really good for 15 minutes at the start of the second half. They gave us lots of problems and scored their goal.’
Having weathered the storm Mowbray went on to say Blackburn caused plenty of problems and could have come away with a draw but it was the challenge and not the result he really wanted.
‘But after that we had more chances to get a goal ourselves. Danny one-on-one with the goalie and Darragh had a free header in the six-yard box that he didn’t get any power on. So I thought it was a good exercise, they worked really hard and it was good to play against a good football teams. It was what we came for, to test ourselves, and it was a good test.’
With Sparta Prague further ahead in their preparations for the new season he thought Blackburn ‘stood up to it well’ and there wasn’t ‘a gulf there, apart from the start of the second half when they really pressed onto us.’
It goes without saying the Blackburn boss would have preferred a goal but it’s all about steps in the right direction ahead of the League One season.
Mowbray added: ‘On the fitness side they are further on than we are. It made a difference bringing the substitutes on, I thought there was more energy, I thought Willem and Corry did fantastically well. Obviously we would have liked to have scored a goal, but generally it was a good workout for us.’
The squad will wrap up the Austrian tour on Saturday, returning home on Sunday before then preparing for the next friendly at Bootham Crescent against York on Tuesday evening.
