Despite leading at the break at Ewood Park, Sunderland manager Tony Mowbray had some harsh words for his players at half-time.
Sunderland led 2-1 at halftime thanks to Jack Clarke’s penalty and Dan Neil’s strike in first-half stoppage time, either side of Harry Leonard’s equalizer for the hosts, but despite their lead, the Black Cats were second best for the majority of the first half due to what Mowbray perceived as a lack of intensity.
After the head coach addressed that issue at halftime, he remained calm and confident throughout the se
cond half, with Clarke scoring his second goal 12 minutes from time to seal the points for the Black Cats, who moved up to fourth place.
“I’d like to put it on record that I think Blackburn are an incredibly talented football team, very well coached, and they gave us a lot of problems,” Mowbray remarked.
“Getting the intensity right after 5-0 and 3-1 wins is difficult with a young team, and I was trying to make them aware that they’re playing a really talented football team who will overload centrally and get it through and get to your box.” And they did it for about a half hour, causing us a lot of trouble.
“We scored at the right time. Their goal left us really upset. We were down to 10 men, and I’m not sure if you saw, but the linesman is nowhere near looking over the line. I’m not sure if he slipped, but he’s around 10 yards behind the play. He’s speculating. But it’s no longer relevant.”At halftime, we worked out a few issues. We needed to play with more fervor. We needed to be more aggressive since they wanted to play through the middle of the pitch. We looked like a real threat and like we’d score goals on transition when we won it back and broke into the spaces they left.
“We figured it out. The intensity was the only thing I discussed at halftime. They pass around you if you sit off elite football teams. I tell the squad this every day. “You can’t stand two yards away from good players because they pass around you.We faced a competent team with good rotations and patterns of play. They’ll play through you like a scalpel through butter if you sit off them, aren’t aggressive, and make them feel your energy. “I thought we were a real threat in the second half.”
Sunderland have now won three consecutive games for the first time under Mowbray, thanks to their victory over Blackburn.
“I’ve been challenging them on that,” he remarked. Someone informed me that we had a good season and ended sixth, but we didn’t win three games in a row.
“It’s difficult to do that, especially with a young team, because of the emotion of winning, winning.” They believe they are an excellent squad. Tonight was a fantastic test for us because we did not have 68% possession and 20 shots.
“In the second half, the intensity of our team changed the game.”
Mowbray confirmed that Jewison Bennette had gone missing from Blackburn due to illness.
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