Blackburn continued their rise up the Sky Bet Championship table by securing a fourth win in five with a 2-1 Lancashire derby win over Preston.
Thanks to goals from Lewis Miller and Andri Gudjohnsen, Valérien Ismael’s men – who have lost seven of their first 10 league matches – moved up to 16th, six points from the play-off places.
And in doing so, they prevented their local rivals from seizing the opportunity to move into the automatic promotion places.
Despite the energy and opening first 10 minutes showing so much promise, there was little to shout about for much of the first half at Deepdale, apart from a solid double save from Blackburn keeper Aynsley Pears half an hour later, when he denied first Michael Smith and then Andrew Hughes.
But the game came back to life just before the break. After a series of openings, Rovers took what was a deserved lead when Lewis Miller – fresh from international duty with Australia – scored with a header after being picked out by Ryan Hedges’ inswinging corner.
The joy was short-lived. Within 80 seconds, Alfie Devine, on loan from Spurs, had been released by Lewis Dobbin, on loan from Aston Villa, with Sean McLoughlin unable to hold on to his shot – caught off balance – before it crossed the line.
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Andri Gudjohnsen headed in from the back post to give Blackburn a deserved lead against Preston in the East Lancashire derby
Blackburn took the game by the scruff of the neck after the break and restored their lead just after the hour when Ryoya Morishita fired a free-kick to the back post, where Gudjohnsen – son of former Chelsea frontman Eidur – ghosted to head in at the near post.
Apart from an acrobatic but misguided volley from Devine and a powerful strike from Thierry Small, which was blocked by debutant George Pratt, Preston offered little and fell to a first league defeat since October 21.
The managers
Paul Heckingbottom from Preston:
To be continued…
Valérien Ismael of Blackburn:
To be continued…
