TONY Mowbray has praised the ‘soldiers’ at Blackburn Rovers for their part in their recent turnaround in fortunes.

Mowbray saw one of his ‘artists’ in Marvin Emnes come up with the necessary quality to win the game on Saturday, as his first goal since September earned Rovers a vital three points against Wigan.

That helped lift them out of the bottom three, but Mowbray has been impressed by the hard work put in to help Rovers keep back-to-back clean sheets.

“I believe in soldiers and artists in football teams, and we have had a lot of soldiers, players putting their bodies on the line, working extremely hard and Marvin was ultimately the artist who won it,” Mowbray said.

“When you come in to a club you have to suss out what you have got very quickly.

“I don’t know the reasons why we were second bottom in the league, I don’t pay much attention to that.

“They have taken on board what has been asked of them and incorporated that hard work and energy. It is not as expansive as where I want to get to.

“But confidence will have been low, fragile at best, so we had to get the basics right so the focus of the sessions has been about the basics and fillings holes in and out of possession and getting players behind the ball.

“I just came in and did what I do and set the standards for what I believe in both on and off the pitch and the players have bought in to that.”

Rovers have picked up seven points out of a possible nine in the three games in which Mowbray has taken charge.

The head coach says all three have been different games, a trend he believes will continue against Cardiff City tonight.
Neil Warnock’s side have moved in to the top half of the division with seven wins already this calendar year.

And Mowbray added: “They have all been very different games. For an hour against Burton we were very good with the ball, we dominated, yet for half an hour against Derby we were camped on the edge of our box trying to make sure we hung on to a 1-0 win.

“Against Wigan it was tough, we got ourselves in front, and the psychological aspect of that was we sat a bit too deep and brought Wigan on to us, but managed to see the game out.

“Every game is different. The next one against Cardiff, they are very direct, powerful, they’re big, throw it in to your box from all angles and yet they are big and strong at the back and don’t give much away.

“This will be a huge test for us, but what I know from this group of players is that they will apply their talents and desire to win for this football club.”

The Wigan win moved Rovers two points ahead of the bottom three with 12 games to go, but Mowbray says he’s not one for looking at league tables, or setting points targets.

“Our focus is on the next three points and Cardiff is another opportunity to do that before we go away to Norwich and Fulham,” Mowbray said.

“We have some pretty tough places to go to pick up points but we need to keep the total ticking along. We have 12 games to get ourselves away from the bottom three.”