30 January 2021

We found a way – Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray reflects on late win over Luton

30 January 2021

Tony Mowbray praised his side for finding a way to win after scoring late to defeat Luton 1-0 in the Championship.

Adam Armstrong made the all-important breakthrough five minutes from the end, heading in from 12 yards for his 17th league goal this term after good work from substitutes Lewis Holtby and Sam Gallagher.

It capped a very productive month for Rovers, who have taken 10 points from a possible 12 to move up to eighth – three points away from the play-off places.

It was also a third clean sheet in four games, leaving manager Mowbray pleased with the defensive solidity.

He said: “I think it’s a good win. They’re a dangerous team. I’ve just said to the team, find a way to win, and we did today. (And we) kept another clean sheet.

“It wasn’t great at times. When we have games like this, if we have aspirations to get into the top six, we have to be consistently better. But we will be better, as we have been miles better than that and still not picked up points or not won games.

“There have been so many dropped points here that we’ve deserved to win.

“Today was a tight game and yet one bit of quality was enough. The substitutes impacted the game. Holtby with the pass, Gallagher knocked it back and Armstrong stuck it in.

“We’ll always score a goal. It’s great to be able to keep clean sheets and win 1-0, not that we want to do it every game. But let’s put the 1-0 in the bag and move on to the next game.”

Luton boss Nathan Jones was left feeling “physically sick” after his side “switched off” for Blackburn’s winner.

He said: “We should be talking about a really good away performance but I’m not because for 10 seconds we switched off and that’s cost us the game and that’s the thing that makes me actually feel physically sick if I’m honest.

“We played very well. These create chances against a lot of teams. They didn’t create any chances today. We defended excellently.

“Our work-rate, structure, pressing, organisation was superb. On another day, with a little bit more cutting edge, little bit more quality, we could nick it.

“I thought for 20 minutes leading into half-time we were brilliant. As the game was petering out a little bit and they committed, I felt we could really counter them. We did and had a great opportunity. Didn’t take it and that’s the thing that frustrates me.

“It’s a drop ball, all my players are standing around and the thing that really kills me is we said at half-time that sooner or later, when they get frustrated, they’ll bring Gallagher on. They bring him on, go direct, he heads back across and they score.

“They’ve done it twice against us and I said that doesn’t happen to us today again. Like a self-fulfilling prophecy. I can’t believe it’s happened again.”

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