Jon Dahl Tomasson delighted with Blackburn v

Posted Sunday, November 06, 2022 by PA

Blackburn head coach Jon Dahl Tomasson felt his side should have won more comfortably after edging to a nervy 1-0 win over Huddersfield to move back into the Sky Bet Championship top two.

On their 147th anniversary, Rovers dominated an opening half of little action but went in a goal to the good after a moment of magic from Ben Brereton Diaz, who produced a clinical 35th-minute finish to notch his ninth of the campaign.

After breaking Huddersfield’s resistance, it felt as though the floodgates would open but an onslaught never materialised and it was the Championship’s bottom club who had the better chances, with Jack Rudoni missing a gilt-edged opportunity early in the second half.

Rovers held on to make it five wins from their last six games and they can leapfrog leaders Burnley with a win at Turf Moor next weekend.

Tomasson praised his team’s togetherness but felt they should have “killed” the contest.

He said: “I’m delighted. It was a great result. I think we were a little disappointed when we came in at half-time, still by leading 1-0 but we were disappointed and maybe we could have done a little bit better. We knew how difficult it would be, that we needed to be patient to create chances, because we played against a wall. We spoke about a couple of solutions at half-time and second half we came out very strong.

“Created chances immediately, got a goal disallowed and should probably have killed that game. In the end, when you are only leading 1-0, it can be tough, and it was tough in the last period. But big credit to the players, and the fans because that spirit they have and the togetherness, and the defending, another clean sheet, it’s great to see.

“We deserved to win this game but the game should have been killed before and if you complain about something, it’s probably to be getting one or two more goals because then we can have an easy afternoon and celebrate our anniversary as well, celebrate our tradition and history of this great club.”

Huddersfield are five points adrift at the foot of the table after an eighth defeat on the road this season.

Head coach Mark Fotheringham thought his side’s performance was “superb” but challenged them to be more clinical.

He said: “The fact is the performances are superb. You can’t say they’re not. The team is performing, they are putting in energetic displays, they’re all playing with confidence. They hemmed Blackburn in there pretty much for the last 15-20 minutes and on another day, if Rudoni takes his chance or we take a penalty from Sorba (Thomas), the minimum we go home with is a point.

“That’s the frustrating thing for me because if we’re more clinical in the opposition’s box, we’re definitely winning more games.

“It’s about having more conviction and more confidence in what you’re doing, getting a cleaner contact on the ball and also maybe a little bit more fluid when we win the ball in certain counter attacking situations because we had the whole stadium on their backs in the first half because they didn’t know how to play through us.

“When you look at that and you see Blackburn flying and playing with confidence, they never troubled us.”