Rovers ended their home fixtures for the calendar year of 2018 with a defeat to a Norwich City side who inflicted Rovers’ second home defeat of the season, after Daniel Farke’s side temporarily regained their place as the league leaders, following a late goal by City’s top goalscorer, Finnish international, Teemu Pukki, which broke Rovers hearts late on.
The final Rovers side of 2018 at Ewood Park that Tony Mowbray picked, included a solitary change to the side that drew at home to Birmingham City last weekend, as Adam Armstrong came into the starting line-up to replace the injured Craig Conway.
The game was kicked-off by the visitors who were looking to extend their unbeaten league run to 11 games, following their strong first-half of the campaign.
The first opportunity at goal came after 7 minutes of play as Amari’i Bell and Adam Armstrong combined well for the latter to shoot. Bell made his way down the left-hand side before feeding Armstrong who had the chance to strike at goal from the top of the box. Although the forward hit a curling effort that was aimed towards the back-post, his effort didn’t curl enough as Norwich earnt a goal-kick.
6 minutes later, Norwich nearly found themselves ahead courtesy of Pukki. Todd Cantwell picked a sublime pass that split Rovers’ defence, allowing the forward to use his pace to run in behind Darragh Lenihan and former Celtic teammate, Charlie Mulgrew. The Finn got beyond the centre-back pairing before Raya closed down the shooting angle, but despite also beating Raya, Pukki’s eventual shot was off-target as the ball bounced into the side-netting.
A minute later, Rovers had a free-kick which fell to Lenihan in the box, but the defender seemingly left his shooting boots in the dressing room, as he poked narrowly wide from inside the box.
It took only 19 minutes for the first substitution of the game, which was made by the visitors. Emi Buendia was injured and subsequently replaced by Onel Hernandez.
The second chance of the game, which also fell Rovers’ way, came on the 23rd minute after some good wing-play by Ryan Nyambe, set up Danny Graham, but the forward’s attempt at goal was well blocked by a Norwich man.
A minute later, Corry Evans found his name taken by referee, Darren England, who booked the midfielder following a late challenge on Moritz Leitner.
Richie Smallwood soon followed his midfielder partner into the book following another late challenge, this time on Cantwell.
Rovers again had a chance to take the lead, this time on the 34th minute, however Danny Graham again found his header blocked and cleared by Norwich’s sturdy defence.
2 minutes later, Marco Steipermann hit a powerful and dipping effort from outside that box that David Raya did well to push over the bar for a corner.
From the subsequent corner, Ben Godfrey found the back of the net, but not before the referee whistled for a foul in Rovers’ favour, much to the relief of the home crowd.
With half-time 4 minutes away, Leitner found himself in the book after he fouled Danny Graham on halfway.
On the stroke of half-time, Cantwell and Pukki again combined to fashion a chance, in the box, however Pukki’s turn and shot sailed wide of the mark.
Following Pukki’s miss, 2 minutes were added and played onto the end of the first-half, with no chance for either side, as Darren England, the referee called for the interval.
The interval would have seen some very similar emotions from both dressing rooms, as both sides would have easily felt that they could have had the lead, or at least a goal to their name, during the break.
Tony Mowbray would have praised his side for their attacking intent, but also given them some constructive criticism regarding their defensive positioning during the first 45 minutes, especially when dealing with Pukki’s instinctive movement and pace.
Daniel Farke, however, would have been also critical of his defence, as Rovers had, more than once, got easy opportunities to strike at goal, through the likes of Graham and Armstrong. The German however, would have been frustrated that his top goalscorer wasn’t able to, twice, find the back of the net when given the opportunity.
Before the start of the second-half, both sides made changes in personnel. Charlie Mulgrew departed for Rovers, with Derrick Williams replacing him at centre-half, as Danny Graham took the captain’s armband. Norwich meanwhile withdrew Moritz Leitner and introduced Mario Vrančić into the game, as Rovers kicked-off the second-half.
Norwich started the second period brightly as Hernandez had to force Raya into an early save, following the winger’s shot taking a deflection, however Raya had the attempt covered.
On the 52nd minute, Rovers earnt a corner that Smallwood crossed into the box. His corner was met by Lenihan who again failed to hit the target, as the header flew over the bar.
A minute later, Danny Graham and Bradley Dack combined with the former teeing up the latter. Graham slipped Dack in beyond the defence, but Tim Krul was equal to the number 23’s shot, as he got down quickly to deny the low effort access to the goal.
On the 59th minute, Rovers had a corner which was lofted into the box and met by the head of Graham whose effort from close range found the Blackburn End, rather than the goal.
That stoppage for the goal-kick gave Rovers the opportunity to bring on Kasey Palmer, for Corry Evans, as Mowbray made his second change of the afternoon.
With 66 minutes gone, Pukki again crafted an opportunity at goal, which again saw his shot from just inside the area, trickle wide for a Rovers goal-kick.
3 minutes later, Vrančić’s corner was met by the head of Godfrey who forced a sublime point-blank save from David Raya in order to keep the scoreline goalless.
Godfrey, from the next corner, again had the ball in the back of the net, but saw his effort again ruled out, this time due to offside.
On the 72nd minute, Graham again saw his header go wide, after a ball in from deep by Richie Smallwood found the forward in the box.
Rovers then made their final change of then game as Ben Brereton was brought on to replace Adam Armstrong.
After some pressure from both sides that resulted in neither having a shot on goal, Norwich soon broke away with the pace of Hernandez as he found himself with half of the pitch to himself on the 78th minute, however Derrick Williams was equal to the winger’s speed, as the substitute got back and put in a last-ditch sliding tackle to deny the Norwich substitute a free attempt at goal.
With the 84th minute gone, Ryan Nyambe stormed down the right-hand side and picked out Brereton with a low cross, however the forward’s attempt was cleared by an alert Norwich defence.
From the clearance, on the 85th minute, the visitors countered Rovers and ended the move celebrating in-front of their fans, who were housed in the top tier of the Darwen End. Hernandez’s shot was blocked and cleared only as far as Vrančić who slipped Hernandez back in, for a cross. The pass to Hernandez caused the retreating Nyambe to slip over, giving Hernandez the freedom to square the ball across goal, into the path of Pukki who had the simple task of blasting the ball home to the other side of Raya, from close range, to put Norwich 1-0 up, which he duly did.
Following the goal, there was a minimum of 3 minutes of time added on, which gave Rovers the chance to potentially find a late leveller, which unfortunately never came.
Whilst Norwich had 3 former Rovers on the bench, in Grant Hanley, Ben Marshall and Jordan Rhodes, the final act of the game, saw the forward, Rhodes, who scored 84 goals in all competitions for the Blues come on for the final seconds to a warm round of applause from the home fans, as he replaced the Norwich goalscorer, Pukki.
A minute or so after Rhodes took to the field, Darren England, the referee called time on a game that could have swung either way, but ultimately saw Rovers’ lack of concentration, lack of defensive organisation and overall tiredness kick in, which allowed Norwich to produce a single real moment of attacking quality that ultimately decided the game.
Despite the defeat, there is only a single positive that can be taken out of that game, and that is the fact that it took a team vying for automatic promotion, 85 minutes to break the deadlock. Now, of course that’s not really a ‘positive’, however in the context of how well Norwich had been playing of late, with them heading into this game 10 unbeaten, a draw wouldn’t have been the worse result. On the flip side however, the seemingly constant conceding of goals in the latter stages of games is something that needs to stop if Rovers are to build on their successful start to the season.
The Championship table now sees Rovers in 14th, with 31 points and a -5 goal difference from 23 games played.
Rovers are next in action on Boxing Day, away at Elland Road, where they face now – as of Sunday, 23rd December – top of the table Leeds United at 3pm. They then remain in Yorkshire to face Sheffield United on 29th at 3pm, before returning to Ewood Park to kickstart 2019 against West Bromwich Albion on New Year’s Day, also at 3pm.
