Rovers’ mini midweek revival following their 3-0 victory against Wigan Athletic, was soon cut short by a rampant Sheffield Wednesday side, who put 4 past Rovers to extend their unbeaten start to 10 games under new manager Steve Bruce, as the Blues’ defensive dismay on the road continued.
With Rovers heading into their second game of the week, Tony Mowbray made 2 changes to the side that breezed past Wigan Athletic on Tuesday evening. There were recalls to the starting line-up for Corry Evans, who was making his 150th league start for the club, and Joe Rothwell, who was only making his sixth league start of the season, as the duo replaced Adam Armstrong, who dropped to the bench, and the injured Amari’i Bell, who dropped out completely, respectively. The impressive Tyler Magloire continued in the centre of a back 3 for Rovers, whilst u23s midfielder, John Buckley was named among the substitutes for the first time in his career.
As over 700 Rovers fans settled inside Hillsborough, it was their team in yellow who took the kick-off and began the game with the hope of potentially earning their first back-to-back victories since January.
Rovers started the brighter of the sides as in the 5th minute, they earnt an early corner, which was soon claimed by the 6’2” Keiren Westwood, who was between Wednesday’s posts.
Bradley Dack soon got involved in the game, as he took a shot from some way out, with his left-foot, however the effort was nowhere near the target, as Wednesday earnt a goal-kick.
The first piece of action from the hosts, was a substitution, as Sam Hutchinson went down injured after 9 minutes, with Joey Pelupessy coming on to replace him.
The second piece of action, which resulted in the hosts’ first shot on target of the game, saw the crowd enter euphoria as their side took a 1-0 lead through former Burnley forward, Steven Fletcher. A long ball forward fell to Adam Reach on the right-wing, before he was able to feed Dominic Iorfa on the overlap. The former Wolves defender then hit a low cross first-time, which saw both Elliott Bennett and Derrick Williams fail to clear, as Steven Fletcher got the blindside of Tyler Magloire, in order to tap the ball home past a despairing David Raya, to put his side a goal to the good, inside the opening 10 minutes.
5 minutes later, Adam Reach tried to continue his fantastic goalscoring season by testing David Raya just inside Rovers’ box, however the Spanish ‘keeper was alert enough to make a fine diving save, as he denied the former Middlesbrough man.
Reach soon had another attempt denied, 2 minutes later, this time by the body of Bennett who blocked the ball into the path of on-loan Chelsea defender Michael Hector, whose subsequent header cannoned back off the post and fell to Sam Winnall whose audacious overhead kick flew well wide of Raya’s goal.
After half-an-hour, Rothwell and Dack combined to create Rovers’ second chance of the game. Rothwell picked up the ball in the middle of the park and burst forwards towards the Wednesday box before seeing the ball eventually fall into the path of Dack, who managed to get on the end of the loose ball and strike at goal, but saw his attempt denied by Westwood.
On the 40th minute, Wednesday’s goalscorer Fletcher, became the first team to go into referee James Linington’s book after he brought down Harrison Reed.
A couple of minutes after Fletcher’s booking, Dack again nearly drew his side level with an effort that looked destined to nestle into the bottom corner, however once again, Rovers’ top goalscorer was denied by the Republic of Ireland goalkeeper.
As the 45th minute approached, the officiating team called for 3 minutes of added time to be played, prior to the half-time whistle.
The only opportunity that added time saw, was a disappointing one from Rovers’ perspective. A wide in-swinging Elliott Bennett free-kick saw nobody in yellow connect with the ball in the box, as it bounced behind for a goal-kick, which soon signalled the end of the first period.
With both managers taking the 15-minute spell to talk to their teams, Steve Bruce would have been overjoyed with his players’ attacking efforts as a result of them scoring with their only effort on target. The former Sunderland boss, however, wouldn’t have been as pleased with his team’s defensive efforts as, despite coming into the break with a clean sheet, he would not have been satisfied with the freedom that Bradley Dack, in particular, had on the edge of their area.
Tony Mowbray’s emotions, contrastingly, would have consisted of nothing but frustration, following the manner in which he saw his team concede the opening goal of the game. The lack of defensive ferocity, organisation and communication in the back 5, would have left the former centre-back fuming during the break, but he would have also been encouraged by his team’s attacking efforts, even if they had been denied a number of times, by Wednesday’s goalkeeper.
Once the sides returned to the field of play, it was Sheffield Wednesday who restarted the game in the hope of grabbing their third home win from the 5 games that Steve Bruce was at the helm for.
After 52 minutes had passed, the second booking for the hosts emerged, as Sam Winnall chopped down Derrick Williams with a late challenge.
A few moments later, Joe Rothwell was again portraying his talents, as he cut inside from the left-hand side, and floated in a cross towards Danny Graham who was at the back-post. Unfortunately for the forward, he was unable to make it 3 goals in his past 2 games, as his nod fell the wrong side of Westwood’s post.
On the 55th minute, both sides made alterations in personnel in order to freshen up their options. Sheffield Wednesday brought on Marco Matias for the booked Sam Winnall, whilst Rovers introduced Craig Conway in-place of Harrison Reed.
The 58th minute came with Sheffield Wednesday making their final change of the afternoon as Atdhe Nuhiu was brought on to replace goalscorer, Steven Fletcher.
It took 120 seconds for the substitute to make his mark on the game, as he found the back of the net almost immediately after coming on. Barry Bannan’s floated free-kick from inside the Rovers’ half, landed perfectly on the head of the completely unmarked 6’6” forward, who only had the task of guiding the ball into the back of David Raya’s net, to make it 2-0 to Steve Bruce’s side.
Rovers’ second and third changes came on the 68th minute, as u23s midfielder John Buckley was given his Rovers debut, after replacing Corry Evans, whilst simultaneously, Adam Armstrong was introduced in-place of Danny Graham.
The changes seemingly worked in Rovers’ favour, as on the 72nd minute, they found a route back into the game through Craig Conway, who notched his first league goal of the season and his fourth goal in 8 games against the Yorkshire club, following a sound free-flowing move. Armstrong combined well with Rothwell, who drove into the Wednesday box, before squaring the ball to Conway, who scooped the ball into the left-hand side of the goal to reduce the arrears to 2-1.
On the 73rd minute, Rolando Aarons found himself booked for dissent.
Things got worse for Rovers on the 79th minute, when Dominic Iorfa grabbed his third goal for his new club, inside his first 7 games. Another free-kick, from an almost identical position to that of the second goal, was whipped in by Bannan. The ball subsequently was nodded down by Nuhiu, into the path of Iorfa whose shot looped up and nestled into the top corner from 8 yards out, as the defender wheeled away in celebration of the goal that put his side 3-1 ahead.
Tom Lees soon earnt a yellow card after ploughing into Rothwell on the 82nd minute.
4 minutes later, Bradley Dack hit a volley which, had it not been for Hector’s block, could have well easily troubled Keiren Westwood.
The 87th minute arrived, as so did Wednesday’s fourth goal, as they stamped their victory with a stylish counter-attack that took the game out of Rovers’ hands. Nuhiu picked up the ball on the left-wing and burst past Magloire, using his strength to deny the defender a sniff of the ball. After turning inside, the Kosovan found Barry Bannan who laid the ball off to Marco Matias, whose effort from inside the penalty area ricocheted off David Raya’s left arm and flew into the bottom right-hand corner of the goal to seemingly end the contest at 4-1.
There was still some fight left in Rovers in the 88th minute, despite the 4-goal shipping, as they managed to claw a goal back through Elliott Bennett to make it 4-2 and restore some pride to the result. Lewis Travis fed Bradley Dack who danced past a couple of Wednesday defenders before teeing up Elliott Bennett who took a touch to turn inside, before firing past Westwood at his near-post to reduce the gap between the sides, despite the comeback being out of reach for the away side.
As the 90th minute approached, 4 minutes of time were allocated onto the end of the game.
In the 91st minute, Bennett again was forward for Rovers, however he was unable to bag a brace as his effort flew wide.
Following that underwhelming attempt at goal, the full-time whistle was soon blown as Rovers were condemned to their 15th league defeat of the season.
Whilst Rovers were good value for at least a point in this game, due to their good overall play, their positivity in possession and their numerous efforts at goal, they were once again let down by their poor defensive efforts, which is turning into a recurring theme for the Ewood Park club. For the hosts to only have 4 shots on target, all of which ended up in the back of the net, is shambolic from a Rovers’ perspective, regardless of who the personnel is, in the defensive area of the pitch and whilst the stats were finely balanced, there was simply no option for Rovers to leave Hillsborough with anything less than a draw, however they somehow managed it.
Although the performances going forwards and in possession of the ball recently, have been positive, that positivity and forward thinking, is ultimately meaningless if the backdoor is left open and your opponent scores with every attempt. Furthermore, the diabolical defensive set-up at set-pieces, particularly that of Atdhe Nuhiu’s goal, was a sight that nobody should ever have to witness on a football field, as the 6’6” Kosovan was left unmarked as a trio of Rovers defenders watched him nod home his side’s second of the afternoon.
Despite Joe Rothwell’s positive display, where he showcased his pace, trickery and attacking intent, as did Bradley Dack throughout the 90 minutes, there wasn’t much else Rovers and their fans could get excited about, bar the introduction of John Buckley, who was given the opportunity to showcase his talents without any pressure, despite playing 80 minutes for the u23s on Friday.
As Rovers were unable to make it back-to-back victories, they have slipped back down to 17th in the table, with 47 points and a -8-goal difference from the 38 games played.
With the final international break of the season now beginning, Rovers will be hoping that they can re-introduce the likes of Charlie Mulgrew, Darragh Lenihan and Jack Rodwell, prior to their next fixture, following the intermission, which sees them travel to the Midlands to face play-off chasing Aston Villa at Villa Park on Saturday 30th March at 3pm. Following that encounter with the Villans, Rovers head back home to face a struggling Stoke City side, on Saturday 6th April at 3pm. Once those clashes are out of the way, a midweek clash at Ewood Park beckons, as the Blues hosts Frank Lampard’s Derby County on Tuesday 9th April, at 7:45pm.
