Tony Mowbray reserves praise for Rovers match-winner Kasey Palmer

Posted Sunday, August 26, 2018 by PA

Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray expressed his delight for match-winner Kasey Palmer, who put a testing week behind him to secure a 1-0 win over Brentford.

Palmer slammed home the only goal in the 54th minute as Blackburn snatched all three points with their only shot on target.

This came within a minute of David Raya producing a flying fingertip save to divert a Nico Yennaris shot onto the underside of the crossbar. The visitors also hit the frame of the goal in the first half.

The result lifts Rovers to fifth at this early stage of the season; their third win in four means the club have lost just one of their last 21 league games.

Palmer’s first league goal came after a week during which he has hardly trained because a family member is unwell, and Mowbray was pleased for a player who he feels is learning all the time.

“He’s very technical, but he had to learn his positional play out of possession, to cut off passing lines to wide players,” Mowbray said. “He’s come from Chelsea so they have got the ball all the time.

“I watched Chelsea’s under-23s against ours the other week. They play with the ball, and so he stands in his position and waits for it to come.

“When you’re not playing for such a good technical team, you have to run, and tackle, chase, win headers, fight and get back, and he’s learning that I think, and I’m pleased he’s got a goal today.

“But all of those things, he has to learn to become a better footballer in my mind. He’s trying to pick up very quickly and I’m delighted he’s scored today because he’s had a tough week.

“He only trained on Friday this week. He’s been in London all week because had a family illness that he’s had to go and deal with, so he trained on one morning and I’m so happy for him that he’s had a good game.”

Brentford’s defeat was their first of the season but their fourth on the spin against these opponents. It was only the second time the Bees have failed to score in their last 16 competitive games.

Bees manager Dean Smith felt the goal should have been disallowed for a foul in the build up, and he was very critical of the pitch.

He said: “The defeat’s a tough one to take. I’m not sure they created much at all. We didn’t create an awful lot either.

“I don’t think the pitch was conducive for good football – they’ll probably put the horses out there later to graze, and it became a niggly game of football.

“Very slow and ponderous from both teams but I felt that we created the best chances in the game. We didn’t take them, had a speculative one from Said (Benrahma). They scored from a bad tackle from (Richard) Smallwood on young Marcus Forss.

“Said (Benrahma) has stopped, probably in amazement that the referee hasn’t blown the whistle, and they break through and score.

“It was very difficult to get a tempo in that game today. As I said, the pitch wasn’t great and I thought both defences were on top.

“They snuffed us out, we snuffed them out, and it probably didn’t make for a great viewing spectacle.”