A TIGHT schedule doesn’t matter when you’re winning, is Middlesbrough boss Tony Mowbray’s verdict on their cramped fixture card.
Tomorrow’s match at home to Watford will complete a busy week for Boro in which they will have played three games in seven days.
Last Saturday, they went down 3-0 at Southampton, while on Tuesday they racked up a 3-1 win at Doncaster and Watford’s visit completes the triangle.
This is not the first time this has happened nor will it be the last with the Championship season being eight games longer than the Premier League’s.
Undoubtedly, the can-of-sardines-esque fixture card will take its toll on the fatigue level of the players but as Mowbray says, the adrenaline rush obtained from a good run can carry any squad through it.
He said: “If you’re winning it’s easier because you don’t have to do much training. You just tick them along. For instance when we returned on Thursday, the boys who played on Tuesday trained for less than half-an-hour because the majority of them will be out there on Saturday and having to expend energy isn’t necessary.
“Psychologically it’s easier to keep them going when they win, come match day they will put their feet back on the ground and make sure they understand what wins matches, hard work and working hard for each other rather than turning up expecting to win.
“In this division you can’t just turn up, you need to compete. It’s the Championship, every team is doing it. You have to find a way to get consistency, the best way to do that is have lots of good players, so when a player gets injured you can replace him with another good player.
“Every other week there have been midweek games and that’s just the intensity of this division. We accept it, we get on with it. My job is to spot the signs of fatigue, and try and utilise the squad as best as we can.
“The Football League voted for five substitutes this year so we’re playing lots of games with less players to do it with. It’s not for me to come out there politically and criticise the authorities, but it’s a hard league, it’s relentless and if your team is not winning it’s more gruelling having two games in a week, going out in front of disgruntled fans and losing again. It’s a real hard job for everybody.
“But for the moment here, everything is ok, there is relative positivity. But if we hadn’t have beat Doncaster we’d have been sitting here talking about negative things rather than positive things.” Character no doubt plays a part in getting over difficult obstacles – especially when confidence had been dented by league leaders Southampton.
So the win at Doncaster was a sign for Mowbray that his team are capable of bouncing back and ensuring that they are determined to keep their promotion bid on track.
Mowbray added: “The team were hugely disappointed after Southampton. We had fantastic support down there, it’s the other end of the country, a top of the table clash.
“I’d been building it up all week – what an opportunity for us to show what a good team we are – but it basically put a massive dent in our confidence, they rolled us over comfortably, scored three goals and asked lots of questions of us. The dressing room was very disappointed, but they put that right on Tuesday. They needed to. If we can follow that up with a victory on Saturday, last Saturday will seem like a long time ago.
“The players are experienced enough, they all know that they needed to get back to doing what they had done so well.
“It’s difficult to find perfect performances week-in week-out, because you’re playing against different shapes, different systems, long ball, passing teams, you have to find an answer to the conundrum every week. Every game is different but we’ve found the answers so far and long may that continue.”
