Had Blackburn managed to finish with 10 men, let alone the nine that ended the game at Wigan on Saturday, Tony Mowbray feels Rovers would have come away from the DW Stadium with all three points.
Despite the sending off of Elliott Bennett and loss of Harry Chapman to injury, Blackburn recorded a 0-0 draw at Wigan, which was the least the boss thought we deserved for taking all the hard work from the training field into the game.
He told the Official Website: ‘Our players deserve a lot of credit. I thought we took the game to them and played on the front foot in the first half. It was everything we’d worked on. I was pleased that they took the work onto the pitch, but the sadness of today is that everyone will be talking about the officials.’
Mowbray was conscious of being too critical of the officials but does feel a little more ‘humility’ could be shown but overall wasn’t unhappy with a point at a side in an automatic promotion spot at the points.
‘It was a difficult day for them and I’m wary of standing here and criticising them; they’re young guys learning their trade. If I could give them any advice it would be to have more humility in dealing with the players and managers,’ said the boss.
Adding: ‘But it was a good game between two of the top teams in this league with the same aspirations. We saw it out with nine men and were on the front foot for the first hour. It looked like we could have won.’
Bennett, who had earlier been booked, was shown his second yellow for ‘simulation,’ which has been reviewed by Mowbray and he doesn’t think there was much the winger could have done to avoid getting ‘absolutely smashed.’
However, it’s a decision, which he doesn’t feel was a dive, Blackburn have to take on the chin.
‘We have to accept it. It’s a second yellow so I don’t know if we can appeal, but it’s never a sending off. We know the boy and we know the player and he’s distraught in there to be honest. It’s done, we have to move on now. If there was any contact, he had to move out of the way. In my opinion, there’s no need to be overly clever. A dive? I don’t think so.’
Meanwhile, Chapman will have a scan on his hamstring after the on-loan Middlesbrough man was forced to limp out of the game, leaving Rovers to finish the game with only nine men.
As it stands he’ll almost certainly miss the meeting with Fleetwood on Tuesday, at least.
