Mowbray hails Dack after Rovers add to Hull woes

Posted Sunday, August 19, 2018 by PA

Blackburn chief Tony Mowbray was purring about star man Bradley Dack after Rovers’ 1-0 win at Hull City.

Dack’s first-half strike secured a first win at this level since promotion from League One last term and Mowbray, who was toasting his 600th game in the dugout, singled out Dack afterwards.

He said: “Bradley is like a kid in the playground – he wants to create, shoot and score and I have to say he is a joy to work with every day.

“He’s a player that when I was at Coventry, he was a tubby kid for Gillingham and yet he was fighting, tackling and scrapping. He stuck in my mind and he’s everything that I hoped he would be.

“What you saw today was what we produced in the first two games. We’re trying to develop a way that we play and we had the majority of the chances to score.

“This is never an easy place to come to, especially with them searching for their first league win.

“In the second half they were gambling going forward and our keeper had to pull off a good late save.”

Rovers edged the first half in terms of chances created, with Dack again showing his star quality, and it was no surprise when the midfielder opened the scoring just two minutes before half-time.

Elliott Bennett whipped in a precise centre and Dack duly slotted the ball beyond David Marshall for his fourth of the season.

Adam Armstrong had earlier tested Marshall’s reflexes whilst Hull were limited going forward, although Jarrod Bowen saw a goalbound shot cleared off the line.

In the second half Hull stepped up the intensity but it was testament to Rovers that they continued to create chances minus Dack’s creative spark.

They should have doubled the lead on 70 minutes when Marshall tipped Armstrong’s shot into Bennett’s path only for the winger to inexplicably tap wide with the goal at his mercy.

Hull rallied late on but substitute Nouha Dicko shot wide before defender Jordy de Wijs was superbly denied by Rovers keeper David Raya.

“We knew it was going to be a challenging fixture for us,” said City boss Nigel Adkins afterwards.

“We have to give credit to Tony because he’s done a really good job at Blackburn.

“We gave a poor goal away just before half-time and the centre-half must do better with that.

“We knew we had to be competitive today and we certainly showed that more after the break.

“In the second half we had much more possession, and towards the end their goalkeeper made a great save to keep us out.

“But we didn’t bring the quality to the forefront and we have been showing that, in the first couple of games.

“Blackburn defended very well and they have defenders who know how to defend. They had intellligent movement up front as well.

“We had good momentum in that second half which subsided during a few stoppages but we didn’t take our chances.”

Adkins also confirmed an injury to defender Stephen Kingsley, who went off during the first half after a clash of heads with Rovers’ Kasey Palmer, is not as bad as first feared.