Rovers continued their march towards the playoff spots with a fourth Championship win in a row after they ended Hull City’s 10-match unbeaten run, after they capped off an excellent performance with a 3-0 win over Nigel Adkins’ side.
The side which Tony Mowbray picked for this encounter with the Tigers, saw an unchanged set of players out on the Ewood Park pitch, as Mowbray pressed for his side to continue the success they had, in their last game, which was a 2-0 home victory over Ipswich Town.
Prior to the game kicking off, a perfectly observed minute’s silence was held for Cardiff City forward Emiliano Sala and pilot David Ibbotson, following their disappearance on Monday 21st January.
Following the silence, Hull City got the game underway, in their black and amber shirts, as they looked forward to potentially grabbing the victory that would extend their unbeaten run to 11 games and strengthen their playoff bid, which would have undoubtedly pleased the 1,259 travelling fans.
Rovers started the brighter of the sides as they began to pressure Hull’s box with crosses and corners, in addition to pressurising the visiting midfield.
The bright start for Mowbray’s men continued, as they found the breakthrough inside the opening 10 minutes following some brilliant build-up play, which resulted in Adam Armstrong grabbing his third goal in 4 games. A long ball forward by David Raya was well taken down by Danny Graham, who managed to hold off Ondřej Mazuch, before laying the ball into Bradley Dack’s feet. The Rovers playmaker wasted no time as he hit a first-time ball, with the outside of his right-foot, into Armstrong, who had got goalside of former Rovers loanee, Todd Kane, before executing a smart finish, past David Marshall, into the bottom right-hand corner of the goal to give Rovers the 1-0 advantage that their play had deserved.
It took only 7 minutes for Rovers to double their advantage, as Jack Rodwell notched his first goal for the club since signing on a free transfer in August, which ended a personal drought of 504 days without a goal. An Elliott Bennett strike at goal, from around 30-yards, was it deflect over the crossbar and behind for a corner. The subsequent set-piece was taken by Harrison Reed, whose lofted effort was met by the head of the former England international Rodwell, who simply guided the cross towards the same corner Armstrong struck at, to make it 2-0 to the Blues.
There wasn’t much action after Rodwell’s goal, as Rovers continued their domination of possession, not allowing Hull a route back into the tie. Simultaneously, Hull, throughout the rest of the first-half, showed little to no attacking intent, as they feared the prospect of conceding a third, due to Rovers’ high pressure and intense gameplan.
Adam Armstrong, on the 36th minute, came agonisingly close to notching a brace, after his first-time effort from the edge of the Hull penalty area, skewed wide of Marshall’s left-hand upright. Some sloppy play by Hull at the back, saw Reed intercept and drive towards the byline, before playing the ball back to Lewis Travis, who hit a low cross, to Armstrong. With the ball rolling towards him, Armstrong had a lot of time to think about his execution, which ended up being a side-footed effort. Unfortunately for the former Newcastle United forward, his effort wasn’t on target, as Hull earnt a goal-kick.
As the clocked ticked over onto 42 minutes, Mazuch forced a stoppage of play, when he went down injured. It took a couple of minutes for the Czech Republic international to be diagnosed and subsequently removed from the field of play and be replaced by Eric Lichaj, in Hull’s first change of the afternoon.
As the break loomed, Hull had an excellent chance with which to level the scoring prior to half-time, as Kamil Grosicki tried to capitalise on a free-kick which Markus Henriksen earnt. The Poland international measured his angles before hitting a curling effort towards the top left-hand corner of David Raya’s net. Thankfully for Rovers, however, the Spanish shot-stopper was alert to catch the danger and deny Hull a late boost.
Following the set-piece, referee Jeremy Simpson added on the 2 minutes of stoppages, onto the end of the half, which came as a result of the injury to Mazuch, before blowing for the break.
With the break in full swing, both managers would have undoubtedly have contrasting team-talks during the 15-minute stoppage.
Tony Mowbray’s half-time speech would have revolved around drilling in the message of ‘concentration, application and desire’, in an attempt to keep his players concentrated ahead of, what would no doubt be, a difficult second 45 minutes, due to the talent and form of the visitors.
Nigel Adkins, contrastingly, would have been lambasting his players due to their dire defensive efforts and poor marking at set-pieces, which led to both of Rovers’ goals. The former Southampton boss would have also been concocting a plan with which to attack Rovers with, in the second-half.
Adkins’ second-half plan began with a substitute, as Fraizer Campbell was thrown on, in-place of Evandro, who did not return for the second 45 minutes.
With the Hull change complete, Rovers restarted the game as they looked to consolidate their victory with a solid defensive performance in the second-half.
After a 49th minute Rovers corner, which was poorly cleared by Hull, the Blues recycled possession and ended up with a chance to make it 3-0. Lewis Travis picked up the ball outside Marshall’s penalty area, before skipping past 3 Hull players and dinking in a cross which was crying out to be attacked. Unfortunately for Rovers, the attacker – Darragh Lenihan – was unable to keep his attempt down and guide it into the back of the net, as Hull were awarded a goal-kick.
On the 63rd minute, Hull had their first attempt on goal of the half, as Jarrod Bowen found space on the edge of the area to release a shot. After a punt forward by Rovers, Hull regained possession in the middle of the park through the in-form Bowen, who drove at Rovers from halfway. The 22-year old winger found Fraizer Campbell with a pass, before receiving the return ball. From the pass by Campbell, Bowen took a touch to open up the angle, but saw his effort deflected into the gloves of David Raya.
A minute after Bowen’s attempt, Grosicki found himself in the book after impeding Travis.
From the free-kick, Reed’s deep cross was nodded down by Danny Graham, who let the ball bounce before releasing a venomous shot that ricocheted off the post and went behind for a goal-kick.
Hull’s final change of the game came on the 66th minute, as Marc Pugh – who was making his debut for the Tigers after signing on loan from Bournemouth earlier on in the week – replaced the booked Kamil Grosicki.
On the 70th minute, some fluid football by Rovers, resulted in Armstrong and Dack combining for the latter’s attempt at goal. Although Armstrong did well to get beyond his man and find Dack, who had gravitated towards the penalty spot, Dack – despite marginally skipping past 4 Hull City players – saw his tame poke towards goal gathered easily by Marshall.
After 73 minutes had passed, Rovers wrapped the game up following a scintillating counter-attack which culminated in Harrison Reed grabbing his first goal at Ewood Park. The on-loan midfielder, who was set to celebrate his 24th birthday on Sunday 27th January, notched himself a brilliant present after he finished off a fine Rovers move. Danny Graham picked up the ball on halfway and fed Adam Armstrong who was making an overlapping run to the forward’s left. After managing to get the ball out from under his feet, the number 7 released a curling effort from just outside the penalty area, which Marshall could only parry. That parry by the Scot, fell straight to the inrushing Reed who saw his first-time effort superbly blocked by Stephen Kingsley. The rebound however, fell straight back to Reed, who managed to kill the game off with a delicate chip over Marshall to secure the victory at 3-0 and Rovers’ biggest margin of victory this season.
With the scoreline cemented at 3-0, Rovers made all of their changes in the space of 6 minutes, as Danny Graham, Adam Armstrong and Harrison Reed all departed the field with Joe Nuttall, Craig Conway and Joe Rothwell, respectively replacing them.
On the 87th minute, Jack Rodwell became the only Rovers player to be booked after he seemingly kicked out at Bowen, after the ball had gone out of play, leading to Hull ending the game with 10 men as Bowen became unable to continue.
With a minute left of normal time, Joe Rothwell tried to grab his first Rovers goal, as he got beyond Hull’s defence, cut inside and shot a curling effort towards goal. Unluckily for the substitute, however, the power on his shot was too much, which allowed for Hull to regain possession from their goal-kick.
As the clock hit the 90th minute, Mr. Simpson, the referee, added on an extra 4 minutes of time, due to the multiple stoppages that occurred throughout the half.
With nothing of note bar a cleared Rovers corner, the game soon ended after Harrison Reed was announced as the club sponsor’s Man of the Match.
This performance, which was described as Tony Mowbray as, ‘the best I’ve seen of my players ever since I walked through the door’, summarises how far Rovers have come in such a short space of time. With Hull and Adkins deservedly receiving praise, pre-match, for their revival after some dismal early season performances, this praise allowed Rovers to operate under the radar coming into this game, with Hull possibly slight favourites to continue their run and extend it to 11 games. Although the Tigers were without their starting centre-back pair of Reece Burke and Jordy De Wijs, Adkins’ men showed little in the way of the attacking threat that saw them notch 25 goals from the 10 games they had been unbeaten in.
Focussing back on Rovers, with this victory, Mowbray’s men continued a winning streak of their own as they extended their unbeaten league run to 4 games, which started back on New Years’ Day with the victory over West Bromwich Albion, at Ewood Park. The passion, energy, commitment and desire that the boys in Blue and White showed throughout the whole game, epitomised Tony Mowbray as a person, a player and a manager. The constant pressure in the middle of the park from the likes of Lewis Travis and Corry Evans – both of whom were superb – gave Rovers the platform they needed, in order to allow Harrison Reed and Adam Armstrong, who occupied the wide areas, to roam free and frighten the Tigers’ defence with their pace. As mentioned in the Ipswich match report, the ability to keep a clean sheet during the absence of Charlie Mulgrew was expected by many, against a side struggling for any kind of form, but to do it against a free-scoring Hull City side, showed how together the team are as a unit, rather than as a collective of talented individuals. In addition to that, this clean sheet became Rovers’ third in a row, after the victories against Millwall and Ipswich Town, which is equally pleasing. The manager will be hoping to make some more additions to his squad, with the deadline fast approaching on Thursday and with the likes of Harry Chapman heavily linked with a return to Ewood Park, it will be interesting to see what unfolds during the final week of the window.
Following a good string of results and several high-ranking Championship teams still participating in the FA Cup, this victory sees Rovers climb to a healthy 8th in the table after 29 games. They currently sit 3 points off the playoffs, despite having a -1-goal difference.
Mowbray’s men now take a week off from action before returning next Saturday, following the closure of the window, as they travel down to face Brentford, who currently sit 18th in the division, on 2nd February. After that contest, the lads return to Ewood Park on Saturday 9th February to host Lee Johnson’s Bristol City, who currently sit above Rovers in the table, in 7th. Once that playoff-seeking clash ends, Rovers are again on the road, as they travel down to 22nd place Reading on Wednesday 13th February, in an attempt to grab their first victory at the Madejski Stadium since they beat the Royals – courtesy of a Craig Conway goal – 1-0 in February 2014.
