Rovers overturned a 1-goal deficit in the second-half courtesy of a Bradley Dack-inspired comeback, to all but ensure an immediate return to the Sky Bet Championship, following a 3-1 victory over playoff hopefuls, Peterborough United, as the Sky Sports cameras, watched on.
During his customary pre-match interview, Tony Mowbray played down the hype of the Peterborough clash by stating that his side had to win their 4 remaining games, and complete the set of 46, to celebrate a return to the Championship. Despite the pressure and expectation on Rovers to overcome the Posh, the manager reaffirmed the quality within the ranks of the opposition by highlighting the league’s top dueo, Jack Marriott and Marcus Maddison, who led the league in goals and assists respectively, as potential threats to Rovers’ chances of getting 3 points.
Thankfully for Rovers, Maddison was not part of the 18 who travelled for Peterborough, but despite Marriott’s inclusion in the Posh’s 11, Tony Mowbray combated the striker’s inclusion by only making one change to the side that suffered a late blow at the weekend at Bristol Rovers. Marcus Antonsson was re-introduced to the side ahead of Craig Conway, which saw the Scot demoted to the bench for the game.
With all the formalities complete and both sets of fans ready, the game was set underway by Rovers, courtesy of Bradley Dack, who was fresh off being named the EFL League 1 Player of the Season on Sunday night.
The first opening of the game fell to Rovers just inside 2 minutes as Adam Armstrong flaunted his pace early doors and got ahead of his man before fizzing in a ball across the box, which couldn’t quite fall into Danny Graham’s range, who saw the ball fly past him, as he slid in to try and turn the ball in, with any contact.
On the 10th minute mark, Peterborough won the ball back in the midfield, following their good pressure on Armstrong, and they managed to amount their first shot of the game, which came through the league’s top goalscorer, Jack Marriott. Despite dispossessing Armstrong well, Peterborough’s efforts went to waste as Marriott’s effort was superbly blocked by Charlie Mulgrew, who launched himself in-front of the shot.
Peterborough’s first shot on target came 3 minutes after Marriott’s attempt was blocked. Gwion Edwards was unchallenged as he picked up the ball and studied the angles before releasing a shot at goal, from just outside the box. Thankfully, David Raya spared the blushes of Rovers’ horrendous defending as he pulled out a fine save to deny the Welshman.
With 17 minutes gone, Rovers earnt a corner which saw Dack’s delivery land directly onto the head of Mulgrew, but the Scot was unable to keep his header down, as the ball ended up on top of the net, rather than in it.
4 minutes after Mulgrew’s header, Marriott was again through on goal, before being flagged offside, but in the meanwhile, David Raya was once again equal to the prolific forwards’ attempt, as the Spaniard made the save unwittingly knowing the forward was offside.
On the 23rd minute, Mulgrew was again involved in an attempt at goal, as his deep free-kick swept across the face of goal and narrowly missed out on being tapped home by Danny Graham, who was now ruing 2 missed chances.
After just over half-an-hour was played, Peterborough established their dominance over Rovers in the first-period through a second attempt at goal by Marriot, who had broken through Rovers’ shaky defensive line. The forward used his pace to break away from the centre-halves before striking a low effort at goal. The luck however, didn’t seem to be in Marriott’s favour as his shot was well blocked by Derrick Williams, who was able to recover and get a foot in, to block the attempt.
With 37 minutes gone, Marcus Antonsson was looking to justify his return to the side with a goal which would have put Rovers ahead. The striker-turned-winger, picked the ball up on the left-hand side before charging towards the edge of the box and attempted a curling effort which was aiming to sneak inside the far-post. Unluckily for Antonsson, his shot lacked accuracy as it whistled past the post, rather than settling inside of it.
With half-time being two minutes away, the Posh managed to secure themselves a free-kick following a foul on Anthony Grant, on the edge of Rovers’ penalty area. The free-kick saw George Cooper step-up and brilliantly dispatch it towards goal, as it looked certain to nestle into the top left-hand corner of Raya’s goal, but the Spaniard acrobatically managed to get across and deny Cooper the opportunity to break the deadlock.
From Raya’s save, the visitors earnt a corner and subsequently a goal after Cooper’s corner was inadvertently flicked into the back of the net by Rovers’ captain Charlie Mulgrew. The skipper, who was attempting to clear the ball over the crossbar, mistimed his jump and could only manage to flick the ball backwards, which saw it curl inside the far-post, much to the delight of the 184 travelling Peterborough fans.
With the frustrations on the pitch and in the stands evident, referee Ross Joyce added on an extra minute of added time to the half, as Rovers looked to close out the period only a goal down as they looked to regroup during the break. That plan nearly crumbled instantaneously before the half-time whistle was blown, as a mix-up and lack of communication between Raya and Mulgrew nearly allowed Peterborough to stroke the ball in, if it wasn’t for the awareness and positioning of Darragh Lenihan. Danny Lloyd managed to break into the Rovers box and attempt a shot at goal, which Mulgrew blocked. With the ball up in the air, Mulgrew must have heard a shout from his ‘keeper, as he left the ball for Raya to claim. What the skipper failed to realise, was that the ‘keeper was stood behind him, and not where the ball was, which left Lloyd with the opportunity to either try and poke the ball into the back of the net, or into Marriott’s path for an easy tap-in. With the Rovers ‘keeper and skipper in confusion, Lloyd capitalised as he tried to poke the ball home, but before it could reach the line, it was cleared away by a furious Darragh Lenihan, who saved the blushes of his ‘keeper and skipper and prevented the creation of a larger hill for Rovers to climb in the second half.
As referee Ross Joyce ended Rovers’ miserable first-half, everyone from a Rovers perspective would have been angry and confused as to what had occurred during the first 45 minutes of the game. With Rovers a goal down, Tony Mowbray would be desperate to fire-up and motivate his side by reminding them of their strengths and the end goal of what their fighting for, which would be a way of attempting to re-motivate them for the second-half. Steve Evans, in the Posh dressing room however, would have been pleased with his side’s application and their strength from set-pieces. The former Mansfield Town gaffer would have been praising his players’ commitment, but making them aware of the potential onslaught that was expected during the second-half.
As the players re-emerged for the second 45 minutes, Peterborough got the game back underway as they went looking to secure the win that would put them within touching distance of the top 6.
4 minutes after the break, Charlie Mulgrew nearly made amends for his own goal by heading the ball into the correct net. A cross which ended up at the feet of Adam Armstrong saw the loanee send the ball back into the box before the ball was met by Mulgrew’s head, but the skipper’s header, unlike his one in the first-half, was over the bar.
It didn’t take long however, for Rovers to equalise on the 55th minute, as they were put back on level terms courtesy of the newly crowned League 1 Player of the Season, Bradley Dack. After some patient retaining of possession outside the Peterborough box, the ball was played out wide to Derrick Williams who lofted in a perfect ball towards the head of Dack, who took advantage of Steven Taylor’s slip in the box, before nodding the ball past O’Malley, who was between the Posh’s posts, to put the Blues back on level terms with over 30 minutes remaining of the game.
With over 20 minutes of the game to be played, both managers made their first changes of the game as Peterborough brought on Joe Ward for George Cooper, whilst Rovers introduced Dominic Samuel in-place of Marcus Antonsson.
On the 73rd minute, Rovers won a free-kick in a dangerous position, which saw Mulgrew step-up to try and make amends. The Scot’s strike was good however, O’Malley was there to deny the defender, and concede a corner, which ultimately came to nothing.
Minutes after the corner, Steve Evans made his 2nd change of the game as Danny Lloyd departed and was replaced by Junior Morias.
With 6 minutes of the game remaining and the away side tiring, Rovers managed to remain resilient and find a way through the Posh’s defence in order to snatch a winner, through Danny Graham, who nodded in his 14th league goal of the campaign from close range, after being left unmarked. After some more patient possession play by Rovers, the ball was whipped in by Richie Smallwood, towards the back-post and was met by the head of Derrick Williams. The full-back headed the ball into Dack’s path, whose subsequent header on goal rattled off the crossbar and into Graham’s path, and with the forward unmarked and untracked, he had the easy job of nodding the scraps into the net to put Rovers ahead, and surely secure the victory.
Directly after the goal, amidst the celebrations, Corry Evans and Derrick Williams were withdrawn and replaced by Peter Whittingham and Amari’i Bell for the final minutes plus stoppages. Peterborough also responded with their final change, as Jermaine Anderson was introduced in-place of Michael Doughty.
With the deafening chants of Rovers fans ringing around Ewood Park, the clocked ticked over into the 4 allocated minutes of added time, as Rovers looked to hold onto a huge 3 points which would keep the route of promotion via winning the league, alive.
With the game coming into its closing stages, Rovers’ first goalscorer, Bradley Dack was named the club’s sponsor’s Man of the Match, as well as Sky Bet’s Man of the Match as the 24-year old capped off a brilliant week of awards with two more to his collection.
Dack’s exploits weren’t done at simply one goal as the free-scoring playmaker added a second to his game tally, which put his league tally up to 18 for the season, thanks to Danny Graham’s pressing and nous to pick out a pass. With Peterborough throwing the kitchen sink at Rovers in the final seconds to try and snatch an equaliser, Rovers managed to pounce after Graham dispossessed Steven Taylor, who dwelled in possession of the ball. The striker picked up the ball and drove towards goal before sliding in his partner Dack, who had the simple job of tapping the ball past O’Malley, to make it 3-1 and to secure the 3 points for Rovers.
With the 3 points wrapped up for Rovers following an exhilarating comeback, the race for automatic promotion and indeed, the League 1 title will go right down to the wire, with only 3 games left for Rovers. Their closest rivals, Wigan and Shrewsbury however, play on Saturday, so a more accurate picture of whether the 3 points that Rovers achieved, aided them in their goal of promotion, will be evident. Although Rovers seemingly managed to gain the upper hand, by playing early, the league table only sees them move level on points with Wigan Athletic, with the Latics claiming top spot on goal-difference. Shrewsbury, meanwhile, lay 8 points adrift of Rovers, meaning that 1 point in the next 3 games will promote Rovers, providing Shrewsbury lose 1 of their remaining 4 games. If the Shrews are unable to be beaten and they win their remaining 4 games, then Rovers will have to either, win their remaining games, or win 2 and draw 1, whilst relying on their positive goal-difference to take them over the line.
With the promotion permutations dealt with, Rovers now have 4 days rest before heading back into action on Tuesday 24th away at Doncaster Rovers. Following their trip to Yorkshire, the Blues head down to London, where they’ll be hosted by Charlton Athletic at the Valley on the 28th. Following the final 2 away trips of the season, Rovers wrap up their campaign at home in-front of, what is expected to be a packed crowd at Ewood Park, against Oxford United on 5th May.
