It was a tale of two penalties at Ewood Park as Rovers ran out 3-1 winners against Shrewsbury Town, in the much-anticipated 2nd vs 3rd clash that blew the race for automatic promotion in League One, wide open. The victory also saw the Blues extend their unbeaten run in the league to 15 games.
Rovers, who knew how important this game would be in-terms of their ambitions for promotion, started the day, 5 points off Shrewsbury who were sitting in second place. Prior to the game, Tony Mowbray had warned the fans, not to get carried away, regardless of whether Rovers came out of the game with the three points, or not.
The Rovers side which Mowbray picked to face Salop saw 5 changes to the side that were knocked out of the FA Cup by Hull City, a week ago. David Raya, Paul Downing, Richie Smallwood, Bradley Dack and Danny Graham all returned to the starting eleven, whilst new signing Adam Armstrong, who joined Rovers on a season-long loan on Tuesday was amongst the substitutes.
The game was kicked off by Bradley Dack, for Rovers, who was looking to increase his goal tally of 10 goals for the campaign.
The first opportunity of the game fell to Rovers, through Danny Graham, as he came close to breaking the deadlock after only 5 minutes of play. Craig Conway, supplied a low cross into the feet of Graham who turned and released a snapshot at goal which was well saved by Dean Henderson in the Shrewsbury goal.
Three minutes later, in the 8th minute, Rovers came close again, through Bradley Dack. Dominic Samuel’s cross was deflected into Dack’s stride who wasted no time in taking a touch as he released a shot at goal, which was once again well saved by Dean Henderson, who was having a promising start to the game.
The action soon heated up on the 12th minute, as Dominic Samuel broke on the counter-attack after a brilliant pass by Dack saw the striker with only two defenders to beat, before being through on goal. As Samuel touched the ball into his stride to continue his run, Omar Beckles came in with a crunching tackle on the striker, which led to many cries of ‘off’, from the home crowd, as a result of Beckles tackling Samuel, who was through on goal. Despite the home crowd’s pleas, referee, John Brooks only produced a yellow, due to there being a covering defender alongside Beckles.
The resulting free-kick saw Charlie Mulgrew put Rovers ahead, as the centre-back stepped-up from around 25-yards out and dispatched a wonderful free-kick into the right-hand corner of the goal. Despite Henderson’s best efforts by getting a hand onto the ball, Mulgrew’s shot was simply too powerful for the on-loan Manchester United ‘keeper to handle, as Mulgrew put Rovers 1-0 up with his 10th of the season on his 50th league start for the club.
Over ten minutes passed before the next notable incident, with Rovers mostly dominating through their sheer pressure, but they lacked the quality in the final third to test Henderson. On the 27th minute, Beckles brought down Samuel again, but this time on the wing, and despite more calls for a red card from the home crowd, the referee decided against booking the 26-year old and went for a simple warning instead.
On the 34th minute, the referee decided to award Shrewsbury a penalty for a foul on Carlton Morris, by David Raya, who from first viewing had looked to have got the ball, but replays suggested otherwise. Although Rovers protested furiously with cries of ‘you’re not fit to referee’ booming from the stands, the decision stood and subsequently saw Raya booked. Jon Nolan then stood up and coolly dispatched the penalty to the ‘keepers’ left-hand side to draw Salop level in the crunch tie.
It wasn’t long before Rovers had a penalty shout of their own, on the 38th minute after play was restarted. As Rovers charged forward in search of a second goal, Bradley Dack was seemingly dragged to the floor by a Shrews central defender and Rovers’ protests were waved away by the match official, who waved play on.
The 41st minute came, and so did another Rovers chance, through Conway’s delivery to Graham. The midfielder managed to craft a cross that was at a perfect height for Danny Graham to get his head on to, but the former Sunderland striker was unable to guide his header on target as the ball sailed wide of the mark.
The officials added on 3 extra minutes to the first-half, but most of it was taken up by treatment to Aristote Nsiala who collided with Rovers’ ‘keeper David Raya.
With both players treated and fine to continue, the referee called an end to a solid first 45 minutes from Rovers’ perspective as despite the minor blip of the penalty decision, the Blues were looking on top in the first-half in-terms of chances created, which would have pleased Tony Mowbray in the dressing room.
The second-half was started by the visitors who were looking to come out and grab the three points they needed in order to widen the gap between the two teams, which would give themselves some breathing room and a better chance of catching top of the league, Wigan Athletic.
6 minutes after the game was restarted, Paul Downing – who made his stay at Rovers a permanent one on Monday – had the ball in the back of the net after he took the ball down well and volleyed home from a Rovers free-kick that deflected his way, however the defender was denied a second goal in Rovers colours as the goal was ruled out as Shrewsbury’s defender James Bolton was pushed during the move.
As the 60th minute arrived, so did Rovers’ second goal, courtesy of Danny Graham who was awarded with a goal following his performance full of hard-work. The ball had popped up in the box as Rovers were attacking and was volleyed on the turn by Bradley Dack, who agonisingly missed the net as the ball bounced back into play, off the post, leaving Danny Graham with the simple task of poking Rovers back ahead from merely yards out.
Straight after the goal went in, Tony Mowbray brought on Adam Armstrong for his debut, in a substitution that was probably aimed at putting Rovers ahead whilst the score was 1-1, in-place of Craig Conway, who had run his socks off during the first-half. Regardless of whether the substitution was pre-planned before the goal, the debutant put in a solid performance during his 30-minute cameo as he showed off his pace, hunger and work-rate to the home crowd.
The on-loan Newcastle forward was thrown straight into the action as 4 minutes after coming on as a substitute, he could have had his first goal in Rovers colours. Bradley Dack did brilliantly to glide past two Shrewsbury defenders before finding Dominic Samuel who cut the ball back to Adam Armstrong who then released a shot which was clawed away from the goal-line by Henderson at the second attempt.
It wasn’t long before Rovers killed the game off with a third goal which saw Charlie Mulgrew grab a second, this time from the penalty spot. Dominic Samuel put his body on the line as Dean Henderson came out and tripped the forward in an attempt to get out of the way, in order not clatter into Samuel. After referee John Brooks initially waved away the calls for a penalty, he was persuaded into giving the spot-kick after noticing that his linesman had awarded it. Rovers’ captain eventually stepped up and expertly placed the penalty to Henderson’s right as the keeper was rooted to the spot.
Following the third goal, the stand of Rovers fans behind the goal became restless towards Dean Henderson in the Salop goal who had seemingly thrown something into the crowd during the Rovers celebrations, which saw Danny Graham call for the supporters to calm down. Although the throwing of objects was a two-way affair, the Shrews shot-stopper seemed incredibly riled up and was continually taunted until the games’ end by the Rovers supporters behind his goal.
Shrewsbury then made their three substitutions in the space of 8 minutes as they tried to force their way back into the game. Max Lowe, Stefan Payne and Lenell John-Lewis all came on for Omar Beckles, Ben Godfrey and Carlton Morris, respectively. Rovers also responded by making their final two substitutions as Joe Nuttall and Lewis Travis replaced Danny Graham and Dominic Samuel, who each left the pitch to standing ovations from the home crowd.
The game gradually faded out as Rovers stood valiant against the Shrewsbury attacks which did little to trouble David Raya and after 4 minutes of time was added onto the second-half, which saw Charlie Mulgrew named man of the match in the process, the referee ended the game to an enormous cheer from the Rovers supporters who knew how important this game was in the race for automatic promotion back to the Championship.
Due to this result being one of massive importance, it will be interesting to see how both teams react and continue for the rest of the season, especially with the race for automatic promotion being as tight as it is, and with teams such as Scunthorpe United and Bradford City not being far behind in terms of points, the final few weeks of the season will no doubt be agonising for fans of all teams.
After this result and Wigan’s draw with Peterborough United, the top of League One looks like this; Wigan remain the leaders with 57 points and a positive goal difference of 38, Shrewsbury are not far behind as they have 54 points and a positive goal difference of 16, whilst Rovers sit in 3rd with 52 points and a positive goal difference of 38. The rest of the playoffs sees Scunthorpe on 50 points, Bradford on 48 and Charlton on 43, with 20 games of the season left to play.
With Rovers, back on track for promotion after a few draws during the Christmas and New Year period, the Blues head back into action next Saturday as they make the short trip to the coast to play Fleetwood Town, before hosting Northampton Town a week later at Ewood Park.
