AS MANAGERS, Tony Mowbray and Derek McInnes have gone head to head four times – and Mowbray has won the lot.
But victory at Ashton Gate for Mowbray's Middlesbrough at McInnes' Bristol City was markedly different to the comprehensive victories meted out by Mowbray while in charge at Celtic, with McInnes at the helm at St Johnstone in the SPL.
In 2009-10, Celtic beat the Saints 5-2, 4-1 and 3-0, Mowbray's last win in Scotland at the expense of McInnes' side.
McInnes admitted prior to Saturday's game that he was a great admirer of the attractive passing style that Mowbray is famed for instilling in his teams, and at full-time on Saturday could only praise the one moment of individual excellence which won the game for his counterpart.
McInnes said: “We would have been disappointed with a goalless draw, but that was compounded by the result.
“I recognise the quality of the strike from the lad, but I have to question some of the decisions the referee made. I feel a bit aggrieved, we just have to make sure they don't make a difference to results from now on.
“Some times there are acceptable ways to lose a game and this was one. It was a soft free kick, there were a lot of 50-50 decisions going their way, all we were looking for was an even break but that happens, and we just have to pick ourselves up and go again.”
Whereas Mowbray's Celtic had a larger budget to work with, the Boro manager has had to cut his cloth on Teesside. Goalscorer Malaury Martin was brought in for free, Julio Arca re-signed in the summer on reduced terms and high-earning players such as Kris Boyd have been shipped out to slash the wage budget.
That, however, did not stop Mowbray leaving out one high-profile name for the good of the team, opting to keep former Celt Stephen McManus on the bench as Boro reshuffled to a 3-5-2 which has bore so much fruit on their travels this season.
Mowbray explained: “I was trying to pick a team that was going to win the game. We spend a lot of time studying the opposition, it'll start again the next day with Brighton, and when the players are having rest days we're in watching and studying.
“We're watching a team to see their strengths and weaknesses and picking a team to do the job. Nicky Maynard is strong and fast and plays on the shoulders, “I felt it was a day for Rhys, Bates and McMahon at the back and to be fair to Stephen, the professional he is, he took that well and although he didn't enjoy it, he took it and it's proven to be the right decision.”
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