Tony Mowbray feels – having come from behind to beat Bristol Rovers at Ewood Park on Saturday – Blackburn are now starting to ‘flex our muscles’ and becoming a force in League One.
Bristol Rovers, in fairness had an Ollie Clarke goal disallowed and Billy Bodin hit the crossbar, when he should have scored, took the lead ahead of the hour when Ellis Harrison beat David Raya.
However, Blackburn reacted quickly when Charlie Mulgrew scored from the penalty spot after Dominic Samuel had been fouled by Tom Lockyer – Samuel himself then scored what proved to be the winner.
A third win in a row, all within a seven day period, was a ‘pleasing result’ for Mowbray, who decided to change Rovers’ style in the second half and that paid off.
‘In games like these, you have to find a way of winning. We were very dominant for 20 minutes and then, all of a sudden, they had a counter-attack and looked a threat,’ he told the Official Website.
‘They grew in confidence towards the end of the first half, they were breaking away quickly, as we often do away from home. We decided at half-time that we’d play more direct, keep our shape behind the ball and ultimately it paid dividens.’
He went on to praise the contribution of Danny Graham as being ‘fantastic’ when he came on as the forward ‘bullied their centre-halves’ with Samuel’s winning goal something he ‘richly deserved’ for his efforts.
The pressure had always been on Blackburn to do well this season and the expectation to win at Ewood was even higher following the games previously but he feels this run is now showing we can be a force.
Mowbray said: ‘There was an expectation with playing at home today after winning two games on the road, but we got there in the end, and that shows we’re getting stronger and progressing. We’re starting to flex our muscles now and show teams that Blackburn Rovers are a team to be feared.’
There’s little time to sit back and admire the handy work as we travel to Blackpool on Tuesday, a game in hand gives Blackburn the chance to pressure the top two and this is exactly what he wants at Bloomfield Road.
‘Let’s hope we can keep building, growing and getting stronger. Let’s keep going and see how many points we can get. The table is closing up now and we’ve got Blackpool away on Tuesday, which is a chance to close it even more. Let’s rest up and be ready to get firing again on Tuesday night,’ concluded the boss.
