Blackburn Rovers’ top goalscorer Sammie Szmodics has revealed that manager Jon Dahl Tomasson instructed his team to create a toxic atmosphere before yesterday’s 3-1 win over struggling Norwich City at Carrow Road.
The Canaries are in the midst of a terrible run of form and entered yesterday’s game on the back of five games without a win. This has put boss David Wagner under intense pressure and there was speculation leading into the Championship clash that another defeat would result in his dismissal.
The Lancashire side had enjoyed a resurgence as of late, winning four of their last five league fixtures to move into the top half of the table. However, the form book can often be upset in these types of games and Tomasson wanted his team to get the Norwich faithful to turn on their players as early as possible.
Szmodics went into the tie with seven goals to his name, already beating the five Championship strikes he hit last season. Speaking to official club media, the 28-year-old said;
“The manager said how they’re a good team but they’re under pressure and how we wanted the crowd to turn on them early doors, which I think they did.”
Rovers followed the gaffer’s plans to a tee, racing into a two-goal lead in the first 15 minutes through Tyrhys Dolan before Szmodics netted his eighth of the campaign. Continuing, the former Peterborough United man revealed more of Tomasson’s pre-game speech;
“The manager wanted us to get after them and go man for man because the way we play football, with people dropping in and getting on the ball, we’d create spaces, which I thought we did really well in the first half and deserved to be 2-0 up.”
Szmodics scored again just after half time, but defender Scott Wharton saw red shortly after when he was adjudged to have fouled attacker Onel Hernandez when through on goal. It didn’t change the complexion of the game though, despite the hosts late consolation;
“I thought we deserved it. We played great football but the game changed when Scotty (Wharton) got the red card and we had to dig deep to get the win,” Szmodics added.
“That worked in our favour, we took advantage of that and played good football.
“We created chances to score more goals and we’re scoring good goals as well. We don’t score easy goals, all of them are good finishes or from good play.
“The third goal might only have been a tap in, but it’s a hard finish and the build-up to it came from their corner.
“To come to Carrow Road and score three goals is brilliant for us and it’s a well-deserved three points.”
Blackburn will hope they can enter the upcoming international break on a high when they take on Preston North End at Ewood Park on Friday night.
Writer’s View
Jon Dahl Tomasson clearly smelt blood before yesterday’s game, and he was right to. The early goals created a toxic atmosphere at Carrow Road and it was always going to be a long way back for the hosts after Blackburn’s electric start.
It now appears that Wagner is on borrowed time. In truth, it’s a major surprise to see that no announcement has been made by Norwich City as of yet. There is an air of inevitability over the East Anglia side at the moment and it would be staggering to see him still in charge for the trip to Cardiff City this weekend.
Head of Writing
