Tony Mowbray was happy with how his team competed against Luton Town, and will take a well-deserved point and put it in the bag...
PHYSICALITY
“I think before the game it was going to be a really difficult one.It’s a team who, bar Burnley, have picked up the most points on the road this season. And that’s not an accident, that’s because they’re really hard to break down, they’re very athletic and powerful. They play forward to keep the ball away from their goal and keep it up near your goal as much as possible, because of the size of their strikers. When I was watching the teams walk out in the tunnel, it was like the land of the giants against a team of young lads. But we dug in and fought hard."
THEIR GOAL
"We’ll be disappointed in the goal we lost because they didn’t really cut us open or create much. It’s a free kick, from their point of view a good one, but I think Patto couldn’t really see it because of the number of bodies in front of him, and it hit him on the hand rather than the thigh. I think he tried to stop it with his leg and it ricocheted in."
FANS
"We huffed and puffed, tried to change the dynamic of the game and changed formation a bit. We got there in the end. I thought the supporters were amazing today, and I don’t say that lightly. I don’t say it every week but I think when the team needed them, they were there cheering this team on and it gave us the impetus to push hard and keep going and eventually we got a penalty and a point from the game. I think we deserved it, but a big thanks to the fans who really played a big part in us getting that point today."
AMAD
"Amad is a special footballer. We’ve been saying that all year. I don’t say that lightly because I don’t want the rest of the players to think ‘Amad this, Amad that’. He is a very talented individual with the ball and makes us flow and tick better. It was a slight injury, more of a cramp injury, basically because he hadn’t played 30 games on the bounce in his whole life. I thought he was finding it really tough so we gave him a 10-day break from playing, and he’s fine. It was always the plan to give him half an hour or so today and hopefully he’ll finish the season strong for us and help us pick up some more points."
FIGHT AT YOUR WEIGHT
"I thought we competed well. I don’t start here thinking ‘god they had lots of chances, we were fortunate today’, I thought we dug in and competed. As I keep saying to them, all I want them to do is fight at their weight really. If you’re against some big guy who’s going to get there first and use his body against you, there’s not a lot you can do other than give it everything you’ve got. The likes of Edouard Michut, they can wriggle underneath these big guys and slide past them. As long as they’re competing and not pulling out of challenges, I’m happy. I thought we really restricted their goal scoring chances today, considering they play the ball around your box a fair bit because of the directness of how they play. And on the other side, when we build it’s really difficult to think about how when you get wide you’re going to sling the ball into the box because there’s nobody really who’s going to jump over the top and head it in. It has to almost be the perfect cross slid across the ground and somebody has to finish with one touch."
SEE HOW WE FINISH
"We’ll take the point. Obviously, as I’ve talked about, we’re not really chasing anything but we have to compete in these last games and see how far up the table we finish. Not to lose a game like this against a really good side who have picked up lots of points on the road, it’s a decent point for us and we’ll put it in the bag. Moving forward we want to win these games no matter who we’re playing at the Stadium of Light, we think we can always win the football match. We’ll have to keep growing and get to that point."
INTERNATIONALS
"There’s quite a few players going away. We’ve got two with Ireland, Patto’s obviously going with England Under-21s, Amad’s going to Africa for the Ivory Coast, the French lads Michut and Abdoullah are going away to play a tournament in Marbella for France Under-20s. Looking at the dates, they won’t be back until the Wednesday, some of them even Thursday, and we play Friday night. So it’s not as if we’re going to have the team all ready and working really hard on the game plan for Burnley. We’ll probably have one day prep for Burnley."
BURNLEY
"But Burnley away is a free hit for us really, like Fulham in the cup and Norwich the other week. Let’s just go and express ourselves and test ourselves really. Be aggressive, positive, play on the front foot, use your talent. What you do know is that they’re not just out to stop you playing, they want to play their own game. So when we have the ball we can cause them problems and that’s what we’ll aim to do in this game."
THE RUN IN
"After that Burnley game, which is tough on paper - they’ll be a game or so away from winning the league. I think there are games against teams who are still fighting for everything but some teams who I think of we have an ambition to improve and grow, we have to be confident home and away that we can go and give them problems and try and win football matches and finish the season pretty strong."
