The Birmingham City midfielder is on loan with Blackburn Rovers and his full debut ended in controversial circumstances
Blackburn Rovers’ Taylor Gardner-Hickman(Image: CameraSport via Getty Images)
Taylor Gardner-Hickman is not happy at being given a second opportunity to make a first impression.
The Blackburn midfielder joined Rovers on loan from Birmingham City on transfer deadline day.
He made his first Rovers appearance off the bench against Watford after the international break and then his full debut in the controversial match with Ipswich Town.
Gardner-Hickman and Blackburn were 1-0 up and had been going hard at it for 80 minutes when referee Steve Martin abandoned the game due to a waterlogged pitch.
Blackburn’s unhappiness was compounded when the EFL ruled they would have to replay the whole match – even though they had established a position of superiority.
And Gardner-Hickman has spoken about the ruling, telling Rovers TV: “Very disappointed is an understatement I would say.
“If you look at everything to do at that time, all the stats were saying we were dominating the game.
“They were obviously down to ten men, we were 1-0 up and it never really looked like they were going to do anything, they weren’t threatening.
“So again disappointed is an understatement, but we put that in the back of our minds and when they come back we’ll have to do it all over again.”
Rovers boss Valerien Ismael was even less happy branding it ‘a disgraceful decision, it’s bad publicity for English football’.
Gardner-Hickman was, though, happy to make his first start for his new club, as a late call-up after a team-mate pulled up injured before kick-off.
“[I found out] Literally about 15 minutes before kick off, obviously Sid [Sidnei Tavares] got injured which is never nice – but I was delighted and ready to give it my all that game.
“I thought the lads were brilliant to a man.
“I am pretty pleased with the way things went, I thought I had a good game, just tried to be that person in the middle that the team could rely on.
“Me and Sonny [Sondre Tronstad] tried to control the game, get on the ball and show a lot of bravery and positive signs – that’s something I look forward to doing a lot more.”
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