Before we play Luton tonight, Mowbray spoke on all things Premier League, defying expectations and the tactics for what will be a very physical matchup at Kenilworth Road.
NO HANDOUTS
“What I do know, the club is a Premier League club in everything other than what you’ve been able to do on the pitch over the last I don't how many years since they came out the Premier League but you have to earn the right to get in the Premier League, you have to have a good enough football team to win games and get in the league but regarding the stadium, fan base, the supporters, the nose, the enthusiasm, the atmosphere they can create it’s all Premier League all day long, we collectively on the pitch have to try and give them that club back but nobody is going to hand it to you, you have to earn it and that’s why every week is a tough football match and we have to keep trying to grow and develop to get to a point.”
DEFYING EXPECTATIONS
“I talked this year I didn’t feel promotion was the objective this year it was to sustain ourselves in this division, make sure we weren’t looking over our shoulders and have some transfer windows and bring in the quality of players that would make everybody say ‘phoo they should get promotion with that team’ lets see if we can keep recruiting well and if it doesn’t go well the message will be that we’re in the right direction, on the right road. Let’s keep trying to strengthen, let’s continue to bring quality players into the system and we get to a point where somewhere the fan base aren’t happy with ‘ah it was a good season we played some nice football’ they want to get promoted and they look at the squad and the teams around us and think this team should get promoted, that's where, as a coach it’s alright having a team where we’re not the underdogs but the one no one expected, it’s alright sometimes to be the team everyone expects because you’ll have the best players, get paid the most money, have the biggest crowd, best stadium, you should be getting promoted and that’s somewhere down the line, this is somewhere where we need to be and that’s alright and that’s pressure on a head coach of course or a manager because the expectation if you fail your job is under threat but you’d always like to be the guy with the expectation rather than the guy who has to try and punch above his weight to get something achieved.”
BEAUTY AGAINST THE BEAST?
“Wasn’t me, I didn’t say that, I am very respectful of Luton, having played against them for the last four or five years with Blackburn you can see their growth really. Early on when they got promoted we played them one of the first games of the season, you expect to beat them, you expect the team coming out of League One, you expect to be able to beat them, you’ve been in the division a couple of years and you’ve started to grow your club and got good payers and as I said to you before, I remember speaking to Paul Hart and Mick Hartford who said they would like the model we are doing, trying to grow the club out of League One into a one that expects to get promoted and I think they’re at that point now, playoffs last year, playoffs this year, unbeaten in 15 games or whatever it was for them, they look strong and athletic and confident to me they’ve got a way of playing that they all understand, they’re all athletic, they get the ball in your box they flood the box full of players, they can all run back and do their jobs, it’s a tough football match for us, that’s why we have to take care of the ball and play in the right spaces in the pitch.”
DRESSING ROOM
“Really good, I think as I’ve been trying to say, the core of them, whilst they’re still pretty young footballers even the experienced players, I don’t know how old Luke is, 27/28 Gooch is 25/26 I don’t know how old they are, 27? They’re the senior players really and it’s an interesting concoction because we have a few foreign lads thrown in that mix, the French speaking lads and it’s a huge credit to them that they’ve kept the group really tight, their togetherness is really tight and they fight so hard for each other. It’s easy to throw the tag and say they’re a really young group and they’re all close mates. I like the gooch’s of this world because they’re the gel really. The expectation of the lads who have been through some tough times here, I think Gooch was here on the back-to-back relegations, he’s felt a dressing room that doesn’t work or hasn’t clicked and he’s a driving force along with Danny Batth, Corry Evans these players that are injured unfortunately at the moment but they’re still in that dressing room and they can make sure that it stays tight and they all work hard together and the things that are acceptable and are not acceptable within the group.”
PLAY LIKE BARCA
“I think I grew up, I say grew up I was a man, watching the great Spanish football, would be on telly in 2010 we were all watching Iniesta, Busquets, Xavi, Messi popping it around and I’m not trying to compare us (because we’re better of course) but there was a team with a lot of very small players in their set, ok they had Gerard Pique at the back but you have to keep the ball really, have to keep it on the grass, keep it moving, play to your strengths rather than get sucked into a game that doesn’t suit you and the difficulty of this match is the intensity, the importance, the urgency of it and there’s a danger that you get sucked into a fight where you’re probably getting out punched so we have to stay calm we have to play our game. We have to try play in the spaces, move the ball, and as I said we take some confidence that we generally score a goal, or two in football matches and we hope we can go to Luton and score which puts some extra pressure on them.”
KENILWORTH ROAD
“We believe we can but we also know how tough this fixture is, we’ve been there this season, it’s a tight ground, tight dressing room, tight tunnel, I don’t know the dimensions of the pitch but it feels a tighter pitch than the Stadium of Light (SOL dimensions = 115 x 75 yards, Kenilworth Road = 110 x 72 yards). It’s a totally different challenge for us but one we should look forward to and go with some confidence and enjoy the challenge of trying to play against a team that are very athletic, physical and if they get their game plan right they can give us some problems of course. We have to concentrate on what we do well and see if we can give them problems.”
ALL A JOURNEY
“Until you achieve in football it’s all just a journey really I think if we don’t get the result we want tomorrow night the journey finishes the season, everybody’s focus will be on recruitment, how’s the team gonna look, the loan players will disappear, what are we gonna do? What will next season look like? Is it a greater expectation, as I keep saying we are going to grow the club and so who comes in who can do what Diallo has done for us, just as I walked in I see Ross Stewart walking up and down that hill there, he’s hopefully gonna be ready in not too long into pre season so just to put a team on the pitch that we feel is really competitive and have some players who can make the difference in football matches like Amad has done, Patrick, like we’ve got Jack, Alex Pritchard so them sort of players can make a difference in football games as long as you’ve got the structure behind them, the intensity, the hard work, the focus and at this moment let’s wait and see, it’s all what ifs at the moment. We know how tough the 90 minutes we’ve got to face in that arena that they’ve done amazingly well in this year and I’m sure they’ll fancy their chances, we have to go there and at times our players with that ability to eliminate players have to do just that and get us into goal scoring areas and tomorrow we can hopefully put the ball in their net and make it more difficult for them.”
FINDING EXTRA ENERGY
“I think that’s the fans, I would suggest the support has been amazing, sticks with the team right to the death, Patrick’s goal against Watford late on, the stadium to me looked still pretty full and everybody was still with the team and I think football is an emotional game and I think the emotion coming from the stands is what helps the team, it’s gonna be a different scenario, we won’t have anywhere near as many fans as much as we might want in their stadium but the players will still find the energy and the drive and desire and hopefully the bravery to play the way we wanna play and get the result everybody this part of the world wants.”
