Following Harry Leonard’s hat-trick of missed opportunities against Middlesbrough, John Eustace backed him and emphasised the importance of patience.
The Blackburn Rovers striker made his first start in nearly a year on Saturday after missing seven months due to injury. He earned the opportunity after scoring against Sunderland and impressing in cameo outings.
However, the 21-year-old’s touch in front of the net was off. He squandered three good opportunities, striking the crossbar, heading narrowly over, and firing wide when through. Perhaps it was a reminder that he needed more time to regain his sharpness.
Eustace encouraged his striker to continue improving his match fitness and emphasised the need of lowering expectations for the young striker after such a long absence.
Eustace encouraged his striker to continue improving his match fitness and emphasised the need of lowering expectations for the young striker after such a long absence.
“Harry is a young boy. Eustace stated, “He’s been out for seven months.”
“We need to look after him. It was an excellent opportunity to get as many minutes as possible in his legs today. The most pleasant aspect for me was that he had three very good chances to go into those positions himself.
“I believe he has squandered opportunities in recent games, so he is getting back in there. At the very least, he is getting opportunities, and I am confident that he will achieve his goals.”
Eustace gave Balazs Toth his Rovers debut, while John Buckley made his first start since August. Other players, including Joe Rankin-Costello and Leonard, received valuable minutes.
The head coach was delighted with the efforts of all individuals who received opportunities and insisted they will be needed in the next 20 games of the season.
“It’s a team effort, the clean sheet,” Eustace added.
“I assumed Balazs didn’t have too much to do. He had a few of simple saves, I believe. His play out of the back was effective.
“We signed a good goalie there, good competition for Aynsley, who’s been fantastic all season as well.”
“It’s about the squad. I believe the players who have come in have played a lot of games; maybe not Bucko, but everyone else has,” he said.
“I thought Bucko performed pretty well today in there with Sonny, and I was quite happy with their efforts.
“But we also have to realise that we only had 13 senior lads to choose from today, so each of them was quite talented. Hopefully, we can continue to move in the right way.
“It’s the nature of the winter season (the illness). The boys have just gotten on with it; some are keeping quiet and had to miss out, but they’ll get through it.”
The victory was Rovers’ first in six games following a difficult festive season in terms of points, albeit their performances have been strong against tough opponents.
This win against Boro gives Rovers some momentum as they begin a stretch of four games in two weeks against so-called ‘weaker’ opponents.
“I believe we have to remember that we’ve played four of the top six clubs in the last five or six games, so these will never be easy games.
“You come to a pretty talented football team, they’re very well coached, and I’m confident they’ll finish in the top six. So, again, coming into a difficult situation and performing as well as we did tonight was really pleasing, as were our performances at Leeds against Sunderland and Burnley. So it’s crucial that we only worry about ourselves.
“We discussed how the Championship is relentless; you’ll go through runs of games where you don’t receive what you deserve, but you just keep working hard and staying positive. That’s what we did today, and the results were positive.”
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