Tony Mowbray: ‘We deserved better’ in 2-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest

Blackburn Rovers manager Tony Mowbray says his side ‘deserved better’ from their 2-0 defeat at Ewood Park to fellow promotion-contenders Nottingham Forest.

Rovers dropped out of the automatic promotion spots and saw captain Darragh Lenihan sent off as goals from James Garner & Brennan Johnson earned three points for the visitors, who now sit sixth in the Championship table.

Speaking post-match at Ewood, Mowbray was left ruing missed chances including an early one-on-one where John Buckley failed to beat goalkeeper Brice Samba.

“We deserved better from the game. There was a lot of effort from us throughout and all the things that you want – commitment, desire, energy – were on show.

“I thought that we were in the ascendancy for most of the game and yet have found a way to lose 2-0.

“We had some amazing chances to go 1-0 up and didn’t take them. John should score, Ben [Brereton Diaz] had the follow-up too, but it didn’t go for us. If it had, it could’ve been a different game.

“There are still plenty of positives tonight though for me. It’s character building and any team that does well has to suffer as we are doing at the moment.”

In a fiery midweek encounter, the hosts saw four players booked by referee Joshua Smith with skipper Lenihan receiving a second yellow and then a red after a mistimed challenge early on in the second half.

Rovers’ fans made their feelings clear to the match officials at full-time as they made their way off the field, while 58-year-old Mowbray remained quite neutral when asked for comment.

“I don’t really want to talk about the officials tonight. Let’s get on with it and let the EFL decide whether it was a good game for them or not.”

Later in the press conference, he added ‘It does feel like every challenge that goes in is a booking which is pretty sad really.”

All variables aside, Wednesday night’s result saw a second consecutive defeat for Blackburn who also lost away at Swansea City last weekend.

Boss Mowbray acknowledged that it is not how you start a season, but how you finish that is important, and Rovers’ dreams of a Premier League promotion are still alive.

“Every game in this league is difficult but if you want to be successful then as a manager you have to find a way to win because you get judged on results.

“Nobody’s interested in whether you were missing five or six key men and loads of strikers. Results are results and your position in the table is your position in the table. It’s football.

“It wasn’t to be tonight, so we move onto the next game now.”

Winning promotion from the Championship is something which Mowbray has experience of, having guided West Bromwich Albion to the second division title in 2008, reaching an FA Cup semi-final with the Baggies in the same campaign.

It is they who Mowbray and his current side Blackburn will go up against next when the pair meet for some Monday night football at the Hawthorns on Valentine’s Day.

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