Another injury time point in London - for 10 man Rovers

They say lightening doesn't strike twice - well in football it does! More questionable penalties awarded against Rovers, coming from behind again - and an in injury time goal to secure a vital point! The return to London to meet bottom side Millwall was the potential banana skin - the obvious one to slip up on. This time Rovers would play much of the game with ten men when captain Grant Hanley saw a straight red. Shaun Williams scored from the spot and after almost an hour Millwall had the lead. Five minutes later Michael Keane scored his first goal for Rovers, Craig Conway providing the cross. Like on tuesday - with just three minutes left, the home side looked to have won it when Simeon Jackson converted a second penalty! - but again with five minutes injury time to play, Blackburn managed to find a late equaliser. Josh King had come off the bench to replace Jordan Rhodes, and sneaked one in in the 92nd minute. Amazing! Gary Bowyer told the BBC:- "We've conceded 10 penalties away from home this season. Our lad says he got a touch on the ball first and then takes him down for the second penalty, but hey if he gives the first he's going to give the second isn't he? If that's a penalty you're going to have 10-15 penalties a game.It was outstanding character and belief (to equalise). Their desire, belief and mentality was outstanding but unfortunately it wasn't enough because of the referee's decision." On Tuesday evening it's back to Ewood for the rearranged (twice) game with 9th place Brighton (29th March 2014)

Late Late Show - an importrant point

In a six goal thriller - Rovers left it 'till injury time to claim a valuable point in the Capitol - and to do that they came from behind twice and had a penalty awarded against them. It looked tough from the off when Marco Cassetti claimed the opener after just three minutes. But David Dunn leveled things twenty minutes later having won a free kick. It's literally been years since Dunny scored away from home in open play!! Rovers went ahead when new boy Craig Conway added another to his name just after the hour mark, this time with an assist from Dunny - and Rovers looked set to collect all three points. But ten minutes later Troy Deeney leveled things again. Then with just three minutes to go, Cristian Battocchio made it 3-2 and things looked lost. Five minutes of additional time was signaled - and two minutes later Rudy Gestede brought the traveling faithful to their feet heading home Rovers 3rd and claim a vital away point. A thrilling evening, but Gary Bowyer questioned the penalty decision .. "We were comfortable at 2-1 and the penalty changes the course of the game. Our lad is stood two yards from (Ikechi) Anya when he crosses it and the ball hits the hand. We need to clarify, for the sake of the game, what is handball in the penalty area because you guys, you report on it and one week it's not been given and one week it has been given. We need some clarification because it changed the course of the game.". It's back in London on Saturday - for bottom of the table Millwall (25th March 2014)

Blackburn Rovers 1	- 1 Leicester City

Matt Kilgallon scored his first Rovers goal on an afternoon of great entertainment at Ewood Park. With three and a half thousand fans from Leicester the atmosphere was always going to be a good one - but facing a team unbeaten in their last 16, and 31 points above Rovers in the table was always going to be tough . Blackburn started the brightest and pushed forward from the off, but it only took 20 minutes for Jamie Vardy to slot home the opener for the Foxes. But this was an end to end game, Leicester very fast on the bgreak, and Rovers certainly not slow in reply. With half time just moments away, Craig Conway provided one of many quality crosses and Matt Kilgallon claimed his first Blackburn goal. The second half provided good chances for both teams, and after another Rovers injury - this time to Adam Henley - 7 minutes of added time provided more thrills but no more goals. A point from a team heading back to the Premiere League was hard won and deserved.
Gary Bowyer told RADIO ROVERS it was an excellent advert for the Championship:- "I thought it was a cracking game from start to finish. I thought we got on the front foot quite early and had a go, Leicester were outstanding on the counter attack. "We gifted them the goal, which is disappointing, as they don't need any gifts, but I think it shows how far we have come, we go a goal down and the response is immediate and I was delighted with how we went about it. Our goal was a boost and gave us some belief and then in the second half I thought we were outstanding. I think if you look at the chances we had, and then again look at the chances Leicester had, a point was probably a fair result, but we did have chances to win the game.It was one of those games where it went hell for leather from the start, it was a great advert for the Championship and a great game."
The result leaves Rovers in 10th place - now 9 points away from the play offs with a game in hand - to be played at Ewood on April 1st against Brighton (22nd March 2014)

Hat Trick Hero - Jordan Rhodes, ends negative run

It was important that Rovers bounced back after the poor performance on Wednesday, and the traveling fans who crossed the Pennines to visit Huddersfield Town were not disappointed! Former Town striker Jordan Rhodes collected his second Rovers hat trick and Craig Conway scored his 2nd for the club. Jordan was on the score sheet within the first 4 minutes, but Town equalised 20 minutes later. It was 1-1 at the break, but that was after Blackburn had lost Jason Lowe and the Rudi Gestede to injury. Rudi rushed off to hospital as a precaution after a head injury saw a long break in play. Rhodes second came in the 55th minute connecting with a Conway cross, and then the winger claimed his second for the club when he scored from a David Dunn assist in the 64th minute. The home side made things tricky when they made it 2-3 five minutes later, but the match ball was Jordan's when he scored his third 1ith ten minutes to go. An important win, and a valuable 3 points. Gary Bowyer gave the BBC his thoughts on the hat trick hero:- "It was an outstanding display of finishing and he has been doing it for a number of years now. It was special for him coming back to his old club with all his family and friends here. His finishing was different class. We have had a sticky patch and the character and spirit of the players was challenged coming into this game but we have responded well."
Rovers return to Ewood next Saturday to face top of the table Lecicester City, 30 points above them, with a 35 + goal difference #toughtest! (15th March 2014)

3rd defeat after 'flat' performance

Following the derby day loss, Rovers fans were looking forward to a return to winning ways at home to Bournemouth , but they went home disappointed, and even booed the team of at half time. Rovers started very brightly - as against Burnley, but after the opening period, there was little left to enjoy. There were chances for Jordan Rhodes, but nothing really to test the Cherries keeper. After 66 minutes Lewis Grabban squeezed one past Paul Robinson, and the visitors had the advantage. There were further short spells when Blackburn seemed to be back in it - but they never created enough to worry the visitors, and post match the Blackburn Manager told RADIO ROVERS "We knew today was going to be a difficult game because of the emotion of Sunday. But It was flat all around the ground and it was flat on the pitch. Understandably, Sunday was a big game, but we started off okay in the first five, ten minutes which was pleasing, but we've not really made their goalkeeper work enough tonight. For long periods I thought it was going to be a 0-0 game but the lad has pulled a shot out from nowhere, again we should have defended it better. Overall it was too flat from us tonight. It is our job to pick them up now and get them ready for Saturday against Huddersfield and come out fighting." (12th March 2014)

Derby day - but no delight

So no 35 years of domination over the Clarets. Rovers failed to beat their old rivals - despite taking a first half lead. The atmosphere inside Ewood was as expected - with a Darwen end full of bussed in Burnley fans - and the rest of the ground full of cheering home supporters. And Rovers set off like a train - with David Dunn at the heart of a dominant push forwards. Jordan Rhodes took the first of many shots, but the one in the 24th minute gave the Clarets keeper no chance and the ground erupted as Blackburn's top scorer was back in business (17 now). He was to keep on creating chances - and eventually hit the vertical woodwork - but there was to be no second goal for Rhodes or his team. Meanwhile if Burnley had lacked any confidence before the break, the second half was a different story, and captain Jason Shackell leveled after 72 minutes - with Danny Ings scoring the winner just 6 minutes later. The long wait for the visitors was over and 2nd placed Burnley picked up the 3 points to help their push for automatic promotion.
Gary Bowyer told RADIO ROVERS:- "I thought the result was a bit harsh on us.. We are bitterly disappointed, there is a lot of hurt in there. The start of the second half Jordan Rhodes goes through and it hits the post, if it goes in then it is game over. You are talking fine margins, we could have been two goals up. That said we are disappointed with the manner of their two goals. They were very direct, they kept pumping balls into our box and we are disappointed with how we defended those two. We have to mark better from the set-play. You have to look at how strongly we finished at the end, Rudy has had a couple of chances, Lowey as well, and Liam Feeney has put a couple of good balls in. We kept going, we kept showing the fight, but we are disappointed. If we'd have won today, and we got ourselves into a good position to do, we'd have been three points off the play-offs."
Rovers stay 10th - 6 points away from the play offs - Bournemouth travel to Ewood on Wednesday night (9th March 2014)

Not good enough - poor performance in local derby

Rovers suffered their worst league defeat of the season - losing 4-0 to local rivals Bolton, and with the defeat their recent good run came to a shuddering stop. Jordan Rhodes hasn't score now for 10 games, and for Paul Robinson, the afternoon reminded the former England no. 1 how tough things can be in the Championship. With both Grant Hanley and Tom Cairney missing from the line-up Gary Bowyer probably couldn't field his strongest team, but it took just 20 minutes for the home side to claim their first when Medo Kamara connected with a ball from former Rover Neil Danns to head home. It was 24 seconds into first half injury time when they claimed their second - this time Joe Mason beat Robinson. The second half picked up where the first hand ended - just a minute after the restart Jay Spearing made it 3, and despite some putting three up front, Rovers couldn't find a reply. To add insult a second injury time goal made it four when André Moritz added his to the tally in the 92nd minute.
Talking after the game the manager told reporters:- "We've conceded four poor goals by the standards that we've set ourselves. There are no excuses for that. I think the first goal was crucial. Before that Bogdan has made two outstanding saves, one from Jordan and one from Markus. We can't perform like we did against Reading and then a week later come here in a local derby and perform like that. We demanded passion off them and I don't think we got enough off the players on that. Obviously the centre-half position didn't help us but there are no excuses like I say.  When you pull the jersey on for Rovers we expect more than what we got off them today. We went for it, we had to, we put three up front and had a go. But we then suffered the sucker-punch of conceding straight after half-time, it was disappointing. We just have to regroup now, we'll debrief this game, look at the good points and more importantly look at the bad points because there were more bad points than good points today for us."
So after 6 weeks away it back to Ewood next Sunday for arguably the biggest home tie of the season - Burnley at 12:30. Rovers are now 6 points of a play off place with a game in hand. That match is against Brighton, who will come to Ewood on Tuesday 1st April 1t 19:45 hrs. (1st March 2014)