Shrewsbury success thrills Tony Mowbray
January 14, 2018
Blackburn Rovers boss Tony Mowbray was eager to heap praise on his team following a much-deserved 3-1 home win over Shrewsbury Town.
The win ensured Rovers, currently third, moved onto the coat-tails of second-placed Shrewsbury and the automatic promotion places in League One.
Blackburn are now just two points shy of Paul Hurst’s men, while a scoreless draw for leaders Wigan means Mowbray’s team are just five points back from the Latics.
Charlie Mulgrew was at the double for Blackburn, the Scotland international taking his tally to an impressive 11 goals for the season with a free-kick and a penalty, either side of Danny Graham’s close-range effort on the hour.
Shrewsbury had levelled via the penalty spot in controversial circumstances through Jon Nolan ten minutes before the break after Mulgrew’s opener on 14 minutes. For Mowbray, there was no doubting the best team had won.
“I’m pleased, I thought the performance level was what we’d hoped for,” he said.
“If we play as well as we did [there] throughout the rest of the season, there aren’t many teams that will be able to beat us.
“I didn’t want them to be so over-hyped that they forgot to play, or too undercooked where a team with a lot of pressure and drive would give us problems.
“I think we got it about right and from start to finish we were on top.”
While he was keen not to focus on the penalty awarded against his side, Mowbray admitted there was frustration in the dressing room at the break.
“I don’t want to talk about the referee; if it had been 1-1 I would have been really frustrated with his performance, but it doesn’t matter,” he added.
“I’m sure he has to look at his big decisions and see how many he got right and wrong – we’ll just move on.
“We had to use the frustration at half-time to the benefit of the team and make sure we didn’t step off the gas.”
