Blackburn Rovers: Harry Pickering on sticking to principles

Jon Dahl Tomasson’s side had lost four successive games prior to their 2-2 draw against Rotherham on New Year’s Day.

Recent results have seen Rovers slide down the Championship table and they now find themselves in 17th place.

“It is not nice to lose the amount of games we have,” Pickering told RoversTV. “We are trying to keep positive, we have got a really good group.

“There are a lot of lads in their first or second season in football, but it is a solid group and everyone is sticking together and trying to get through it.

“The performance (against Rotherham) was good, it is just those fine margins. We have got to find a way to get over the line and win those games.”

He added: “I don’t think it matters what game is coming up really, we have just got to go into the next one believing again.

“We have got the talent to win against teams, we showed it earlier in the season. When we are playing well, we can dominate teams.

“We have just got to try and get out of this rut and it starts with Cambridge on Saturday.”

Rovers led twice against the Millers but were unable to get the victory over the line, with Tom Eaves equalising eight minutes from time.

“It was massively frustrating,” the full-back explained. “I think we dominated most of the game, especially first half.

Sigurdsson on target against Rotherham (Image: Camerasport)

“We created chances and should have scored a few more, but we knew what Rotherham were going to do. They were going to cause is problems from direct balls and set-pieces, and they scored a set-piece in the first half.

“Second half, I thought we started really well. We got the goal and maybe around 60 minutes just dropped off it a little bit, but I still think we were in control. It was really disappointing to concede at the end.

“I think (we needed to be more clinical). Siggy’s finish was good and we got into good areas, they cleared one off the line.

“There were a few close chances and the goal they scored came at a bad time. At half time, we were keeping positive and wanted to do the same again.

“We scored straight away so it was a really good reaction. It was really disappointing at the end and it is two points dropped.”

Despite the result, Pickering believes there were positives to take from the performance and hopes the side can kick on ahead of their FA Cup third round tie against Cambridge this weekend.

“We are trying our best to get out of that (bad run) and put on good performances,” he continued.

“Especially after Boxing Day, it was really poor for us but I think we played some good football at Hull and came out of the other side of that.

“It was the same again (on Monday) and I thought we played as well as we have done for a while – creating chances, one or two touches around their box, exciting football.

“It was disappointing, it hurts more when you feel like you deserve more from the game, but nothing is guaranteed in football and you have to do the right things all the time. It is all about the fine margins and we have got to get on the right side of them.”

Rovers haven’t kept a clean sheet since their 3-0 victory at Stoke on November 25 and Pickering knows they must tighten up at the back.

“It comes from a collective effort,” he stated. “The front lads work so hard and we try to do the same. It has got to come as a team effort and we will all go through that and try to improve.”

However, the 25-year-old insists Tomasson’s side will not stray from the identity and principles that served them well during the first half of the campaign.

“We have worked on that all of last season and this season. We shouldn’t go away from that, we just have to be better at it,” he reflected.

“We shouldn’t go away from what got us the results earlier in the season when we were playing good football and keeping clean sheets. We just have to find a way to get back to that.”