Rovers treated their 2,800 travelling supporters to a 2-1 win, which helped extend the Blues’ unbeaten run to three games, after overcoming a valiant Walsall side, away at the Banks’s Stadium, which saw Rovers remain atop of the league.
In the build-up to the encounter, Tony Mowbray was wary of the threat that Walsall would cause and he had challenged his side to maintain their momentum from the previous three results, in order to go to the Banks’s Stadium and emerge victorious.
Tony Mowbray made two changes to the starting eleven; one forced, one by choice. The forced change saw Bradley Dack miss out on the game through illness, whilst Amari’i Bell was dropped to the bench with Jack Payne and Ryan Nyambe replacing the duo. In addition to the changes in the starting eleven, the bench saw some similar rotation, as Paul Caddis and Joe Nuttall were brought as backup.
Walsall started the game and were looking forward to potentially extend their own unbeaten run to five games, after previously drawing 0-0 with Gillingham, beating Doncaster 4-2, drawing 2-2 with Blackpool and beating MK Dons 1-0 in their last four.
The first chance of the game fell Rovers’ way inside the first 3 minutes, as some slick passing and movement crafted open the Walsall defence, which culminated in an Elliott Bennett strike which was saved by the keeper. Danny Graham and Jack Payne linked up well, before Payne slot Bennett through, who was in acres of space on the right-hand side. The winger wasted little time in taking a touch as he drove the ball towards goal, first-time, but thankfully for Walsall, their ‘keeper, Liam Roberts, was equal to the attempt.
After a quiet 14 minutes, which saw possession being retained by either side, with very little happening in the way of chances, the game suddenly exploded to life on the 17th minute as Danny Graham fired Rovers into the lead, with his 150th goal of his illustrious career. Elliott Bennett provided a deep cross into the box, which was wonderfully controlled by Armstrong to keep it in play, before sending the ball back whence it came. The ball back in, fell to the feet of Graham, who needed no second invitation to poke the ball home and send the Rovers contingency into raptures.
With Rovers 1-0 up already, it took the Blues only 9 minutes to stick a second goal into the back of the Walsall net. Danny Graham doubled his tally for the game and earnt his 151st career goal courtesy of another cross by Elliott Bennett which was worked to Graham. Bennett lofted in another ball in from the right-hand side, which fell to Jack Payne. The midfielder managed to climb highest and nod the ball down into Danny Graham’s path, who coolly kept his composure to nod the ball into the net to make it 2-0.
By the 33rd minute, Graham nearly had his name written all over the match ball. With his superb ability to spearhead an attack, Graham was again able to provide Bennett with a key role in the Rovers attack. With the ball at Bennett’s feet out wide, the former Brighton winger whipped in another delicious ball into the box which hung invitingly for Graham’s head. The forward was able to manoeuvre himself well in the box, in order to get on the end of the cross as he flicked it behind him and nearly found the bottom corner of the Walsall net.
4 minutes later, Rovers nearly got a third as Jack Payne showed his quality to pick out Adam Armstrong from deep with a looping ball forwards which landed on the feet of the attacker. With the defenders beaten for pace, Armstrong closed in on goal with only the keeper to beat. Despite his good form of late, which has seen the loanee score 4 goals in 3 games, Armstrong came inches away from making it 5 from 4, as his attempt cannoned off the crossbar and was cleared.
With Rovers two goals to the good, it seemed like they took their foot off the gas pedal as Walsall managed to grab a goal back on the stroke of half-time, to reduce the deficit between the two sides, back to one goal. A corner was played in, from the left-hand side which was cleared by Rovers, but the ball found its way to Joe Edwards, who volleyed the ball back into the box. His volley was met by the right-foot of Jack Fitzwater, who managed lose his marker in Danny Graham and side-foot the ball into the back of the net from close range.
With two minutes of time being allocated at the end of the first-half, Rovers were able to hold out and retain their lead until the break after whittling away the time. Despite Rovers holding a slim lead at the break, there would have been a sense of frustration amongst the Rovers camp as they would have been disappointed with the late goal that they conceded from the set-piece, which has been a kind of Achilles heel for Rovers this season. Contrastingly, Walsall would have had their tails up, despite conceding two goals, as they would have believed in their ability to salvage something from the game in the second-half.
After the players re-emerged for the second period, it was Rovers who got the game back underway as they were looking to retain or potentially extend their lead.
On the 49th minute, it looked as if Rovers had started the brighter of the two sides as Adam Armstrong raced out of the blocks and released a shot from far out, which flew wide of the mark.
3 minutes later, however Walsall mounted an attack to try and get back into the game, courtesy of Joe Edwards. The full-back found himself on the left-hand side of the field as he stormed forward. He soon cut inside and released an effort on goal, from the top of the box, which David Raya did well to stop.
10 minutes after Edwards’ attempt, Rovers made a change in their forward line. Danny Graham, who had been ill, and was reportedly throwing up at half-time, was withdrawn and replaced by Dominic Samuel.
Minutes later, Walsall made a change of their own as Julien Ngoy was introduced, in-place of Justin Shaibu.
3 minutes after Walsall’s substitution, they made a second, which saw Maz Kouhyar replace Joe Edwards. Simultaneously, Rovers made their second change of the afternoon as Corry Evans was replaced by Marcus Antonsson.
A minute after Antonsson was introduced, he was immediately in the action, as he swung in a cross from the left, which met the head of fellow substitute Dominic Samuel. Unfortunately for Samuel, his header was a poor one, which he did not connect with correctly, as it bounced down and looped up over, onto the roof of the net.
On the 74th minute, Derrick Williams gave away a free-kick on the edge of the Rovers area, which saw Erhun Oztumer step up and take. The Turkish midfielder’s effort would have been magnificent, had it gone in, but David Raya produced an even better save to deny Walsall’s top goalscorer.
5 minutes later, Tony Mowbray played his final card which saw him introduce Amari’i Bell for Jack Payne.
With 83 minutes on the clock, Rovers had a deep free-kick and a chance to make it three with a good delivery. The Blues’ skipper, Charlie Mulgrew stood over the ball and delivered a cross which was met by the head of his centre-back partner, Darragh Lenihan. Although the cross and connection were good, Lenihan was unable to direct his header anywhere but Roberts’ hands.
With the game drawing to a close and with the Rovers support in full voice, the referee added on a hefty 6 minutes of added time, as a result of some treatment being given to Charlie Mulgrew. Once the allocated time had been played, the referee blew for the final whistle which secured Rovers a very hard-earnt three points.
With the three points secured, Rovers and their fans could relax knowing that they remained top of the league, by a single point, following both Shrewsbury and Wigan winning. Despite Wigan having three games in hand, Rovers still lead the way on 69 points, a point ahead of Shrewsbury and three ahead of Wigan, with the former two playing 34 games.
With 12 games of the season still remaining for Rovers, the next ‘cup final’ that they participate in, comes from Kingsmeadow, on Tuesday 27th February, as they travel down south to try and exact some revenge over AFC Wimbledon, who, in the sides’ last meeting, ran out 1-0 winners at Ewood Park.
