Manager praises substitutes after win
A wonderful piece of magic, those are the words manager Gary Rowett used to describe winger Zeli Ismail’s stunning strike at the Globe Arena as the Brewers left Lancashire with a 1-0 win and their first away victory of 2014.
With just over 60 minutes on the clock Rowett introduced Ismail and it took just 10 minutes for the Wolves loanee to unlock a stubborn Morecambe defence, with what proved to be the match winner.
“It was a wonderful piece of magic by Zeli.
“It was interesting because he had a couple of opportunities where he has gone down the outside and the full-back had started to read that.
“As a young player he has not only showed that he has the quality but also the intelligence to see where the space is,” said Rowett.
Rowett rolled the dice on the hour-mark introducing Ismail and Chris Hussey for Alex MacDonald and Jimmy Phillps, who had both, ran themselves into the ground on a boggy pitch.
Billy Kee, who dropped to the bench in favour of Gary Alexander was also introduced during the second-half and played a key role in Ismail’s winner.
Afterwards Rowett praised his trio of substitutes.
“Sometimes the substitutes can have more of an impact than the players who actually start the game.
“To have the likes of Zeli Ismail, Chris Hussey and Billy Kee to bring on is brilliant.”
In difficult conditions Albion utilised the winger to good affect and Rowett was pleased with how his side dominated proceedings away from home.
“I was really pleased with the way we played today, we played with really good control for the away side.
“We created plenty of opportunities in the early stages of the match and got into some fantastic positions out wide where we were one-on-one with the full-backs.”
The Albion boss conceded that his side should have taken one or two of their early first-half chances after having a firm grip on the game in the early stages.
“Whether it was a combination of them defending well or us not being positive enough in the final third, I thought we deserved more in the first-half.
“I thought we played really well, we just didn’t have the icing on the cake with that final bit of quality in the first-half,” added Rowett.