Blackburn manager Tony Mowbray unhappy with referee at Ewood Park

Posted Sunday, January 28, 2018 by PA

Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray felt the referee disrupted the flow of the game as his side drew 1-1 with Northampton.

Rovers were heading for their first home Sky Bet League One defeat since September as Northampton frustrated them following John-Joe O’Toole’s 12th-minute glancing header – his fourth goal in his last four matches.

The visitors retreated further back as the game wore on and Danny Graham rescued a point with a header of his own in the 74th minute – scoring for the third successive home league outing.

Despite extending their unbeaten league run to 17, Rovers dropped out of the top two.

And Mowbray felt referee Anthony Backhouse did not help his team.

He said: “It wasn’t the referee’s fault we didn’t get three points, but he punctuated the game constantly.

“If he’s going to book the goalkeeper for time-wasting, book him half an hour earlier, not right at the end. It’s just daft things like that.

“I don’t know how old he is or how experienced he is but I sit here and think goodness me, whoever is assessing him today has got to think he’s got a bit to do to get to the Premier League.

“He might say that I’ve got a bit to do to get to the Premier League. That’s alright, but I can only give you my opinion and I thought he didn’t allow the game to flow.

“We’re frustrated today. The opportunity was there for three points. I think the application of the team was undoubtedly there, the desire was there, the support base was right behind the team.”

Northampton equalled their longest unbeaten run of the season of four games with this draw.

Cobblers boss Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink felt his side restricted the hosts to very few chances but still saw it as a point gained.

He said: “During the game if you look, yes they had a lot of play and we had our backs to the wall, but did they work the goalkeeper? No, not really.

“You’re here at Blackburn, they are favourites to win and get promotion. We come here and put our best foot forward and battle.

“I think in the first half we were excellent and we caused them a lot of problems. But if you think that for 96 minutes, you’re going to dominate the game, you can forget that.

“We knew there would be spells in a game that you have to defend as a team really well. I think you have to applaud the players for that; for that commitment, organisation, togetherness, the amount of blocks, the amount of hard work that they did to get that result.

“If you analyse it like that, it’s a point gained for me.”