There was a share of the spoils at Kenilworth Road, as a rather entertaining draw saw Rovers instantaneously come back from a goal down to salvage a point on the road, against a Luton Town side that more than matched their visitors.
Tony Mowbray’s team selection for the first post-international break game saw two changes to the side that ran out 3-1 winners at home to Queens Park Rangers, before the intermission. Barry Douglas and Tom Trybull returned to the first-team, as minor injuries prevented Ryan Nyambe and Corry Evans from starting, after the former picked up a knock with Namibia during the international break, whilst the latter was withdrawn from the QPR game early on with a hamstring issue. Nyambe, however, was available from the Rovers bench. Whilst Daniel Ayala and Derrick Williams were still unavailable due to injury, the recently re-introduced nine-man bench saw Hayden Carter, Amari’i Bell and Stewart Downing all return to the matchday squad, alongside a bench that included the aforementioned Nyambe, Aynsley Pears, Sam Gallagher, Jacob Davenport, John Buckley and Tyrhys Dolan.
As the clock ticked over to 3pm, it was Luton Town who got the game underway as the hosts looked to try and extend their solid start to the season, which has seen them lose only once in their last five games – which came in a 3-0 defeat against Brentford.
The first effort of the afternoon came after seven minutes when Rhys Norringhton-Davies saw his right-footed effort just edge wide of the left-hand post. Soon after, Luton were able to dispossess Rovers and craft their second chance in as many minutes as former Newcastle youth graduate Elliott Lee saw his shot blocked from close-range.
On the 10th minute, Rovers managed to craft the best chance of the game as Adam Armstrong and Joe Rothwell combined to try and set up Ben Brereton. The former slid through the overlapping latter which allowed Rothwell to try set up Brereton with a floated cross. The former Forest forward managed to creep towards the goalline and meet the header, however despite seeing his nod brilliantly parried by Croat ‘keeper Simon Sluga, referee Gavin Ward pulled the game back for a foul by Brereton after the forward impeded his marker prior to climbing to reach the cross.
Rovers managed to get the ball to nestle into the net on the 21st minute, but it was ruled out for offside on Adam Armstrong. A Barry Douglas corner saw Scott Wharton’s header parried out by Sluga into the path of Armstrong who needed to second invitation, but his celebration was cut short by the assistant’s flag.
The first booking of the game came to Joe Rothwell on the 32nd minute after the midfielder fouled a Luton player inside the host’s half in an attempt to curtail a counter-attack.
Five minutes later, Rothwell was involved in an attacking sense as he sent in a low cross towards both Armstrong and Brereton, but neither could connect with the delivery, as the ball zipped across the box harmlessly, as Luton regained possession.
Armstrong managed to shift the ball onto his right-foot on the 42nd minute, after he received the ball in the box. The prolific forward tried to curl the ball into the far corner for a trademark goal, but the ‘Angel of the North’ saw his shot deflect off target.
Just prior to the half-time whistle, referee Gavin Ward added on one extra minute of time onto the end of the first period, as Rovers’ pressure continued.
Despite some late set-pieces for Rovers, Tony Mowbray’s outfit were unable to break the deadlock as the match official soon called time on an entertaining half of football, despite remaining scoreless.
Nathan Jones would have been the more satisfied manager at the interval, as despite his side being relatively dominant on the ball during the opening phases of the game, the Welshman would have been pleased to see that his side weren’t punished for a couple of lapses in concentration. Whilst Luton had continued to show why they had started the season brighter than last campaign, with some solid football that troubled Rovers’ defence on more than one occasion, the home side were unable to craft that killer opportunity that would have caused Rovers ‘keeper Thomas Kaminski any real trouble, with the Belgian goalie yet to make a real goal-denying save in this encounter.
Tony Mowbray in the away dressing room, would have been quite upset that his side had given Luton as many opportunities as they had done. Although Rovers had shown their quality throughout the half, they had not managed to craft anything to show for it, with Wharton’s header and Armstrong’s offside goal being the best chances that the visitors had throughout the half. Mowbray would have been quick to warn his side that they needed to make their possession of the ball count, before Luton made them pay.
After both gaffers were able to address their teams, the sides returned for the second-half via Rovers taking the kick-off, as the Lancashire side hoped to make their individual and collective quality count by grabbing their second victory on the bounce.
George Moncur had the second-half’s first opportunity as he drove a strike towards goal, but Kaminski was alert enough to deny the midfielder at his near-post.
Ben Brereton’s cross, on the 57th minute, was cleared only as far as Joe Rankin-Costello whose effort from the edge of the area ended up in the empty stand behind the goal.
The first two substitutions of the game saw the hosts introduce James Bree and James Collins in-place of Harry Cornick and Elliott Lee.
Rothwell tried his luck from distance after 64 minutes, but Sluga was on hand to get down and claim the ball.
A minute later, Bradley Johnson managed to find Brereton who skipped past a couple, before seeing the ball poked away from him and into the path of Armstrong, whose first-time strike looped over the bar.
Rovers’ first substitution soon arrived on the 68th minute, as Sam Gallagher came on to replace Tom Trybull.
The deadlock was soon breached in the 69th minute, courtesy of the home side’s attacking midfielder, Luke Berry. Substitute James Collins managed to find some space, cutting in off the right-hand side. The target-man had all the time in the world to try and set himself up for a curling left-footed effort, but he slipped as he released his shot. The slip proved ideal for Luton as the ball bobbled into the path of an unmarked Berry who had the composure to divert the ball past the wrongfooted Kaminski to give the hosts the lead at 1-0.
Moments after the Luton goal, Bradley Johnson found himself booked after fouling midway inside his own half.
That lead only lasted for three minutes, as Rovers soon drew themselves level, courtesy of Sam Gallagher. A good attacking move by Rovers saw Harvey Elliott stand up a diagonal ball towards the back-post which Barry Douglas connected with. The full-back, who managed to gain height against his defender in order to reach the cross, nodded the ball down into the path of Gallagher who only needed one touch to guide the ball past the rooted Sluga’s near-post to tie the game at 1-1.
Rovers’ second change came on the 76th minute as Ryan Nyambe came on to replace Joe Rankin-Costello, who pulled his hamstring whilst defending.
Luton, meanwhile, made two changes of their own as Kazenga LuaLua and Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu replaced George Moncur and goalscorer, Luke Berry.
The 80th minute saw Kaminski called upon to deny Sonny Bradley, with a fine save, as the 6’5” defender tried to sneak the ball in at the back-post.
Ben Brereton again tried his luck at goal, this time on the 86th minute, but again saw his effort blocked in the closing stages.
As the clocked ticked into the 90th minute, referee Gavin Ward allocated four minutes onto the end of the tie.
The final act of the game saw Ben Brereton booked for diving, despite it looking clearly as if the attacker was hauled down on the edge of the Luton area.
With both sides pushing for a later winner, the game was soon called to an end as both sides were forced to settle for a point, despite there being many chances throughout the game.
Although Rovers were unable to come away from this game with a victory, some could argue both ways regarding whether this result can be seen as a positive, given that the side had to overcome a deficit in order to snatch a point. Whilst Rovers would have expected themselves to be able to beat Luton, given their good form away from home this campaign, Luton have shown themselves, both this campaign and last, to be tricky customers for their opponents, with Rovers feeling the brunt of that last season, having not picked up a point against the Bedfordshire side during both meetings in 2019-20, after they won at Ewood Park and Kenilworth Road.
Whilst the performance wasn’t what Rovers fans would have been expecting, following the last game against QPR, and the two-week international break, the character of the squad and the desire to equalise was shown today in testing circumstances. Despite not playing to the best of their ability, Rovers managed to break down Luton and grab a goal that is sure to not only boost confidence among the squad by avoiding defeat, but for the scorer Sam Gallagher, who has found it hard to cement a place in the side with only one goal to his name so far, this campaign which came in the 4-0 win over Coventry City.
Despite avoiding defeat, Rovers have dropped down two places to 14th after 12 games, as they sit on 15 points and a positive goal difference of +7. Although we are still relatively early in the campaign, the Blues find themselves seven points off the final playoff place in 6th and they will quickly need to start picking up successive victories in order to try and make up the gap before things edge out of their control.
Looking at the upcoming fixtures, Rovers’ next game sees them back in action on Tuesday at Deepdale as they travel for their second successive away game, this time against Lancashire rivals, Preston North End on Tuesday 24th November at 7:45pm. After that, Rovers return to Ewood for back-to-back home games. The first of which sees Tony Mowbray’s men host Barnsley on Saturday 28th November at 3pm, whilst the second game sees more midweek action materialise as Millwall make the trip up north for their clash with the Blues on Wednesday 2nd December at 7:45pm.
