Rovers managed to secure the Lancashire Bragging Rights as they passed Preston North End to death after ending the game with 75% possession and a victorious scoreline of 3-0.
Ahead of the first Lancashire Derby of the campaign against the Lilywhites, Tony Mowbray made three changes to the side that managed to snatch a point at Kenilworth Road in the 1-1 draw away against Luton Town. Two of those changes were enforced, as a hamstring injury ruled out Joe Rankin-Costello, whilst an automatic suspension after five yellow cards also saw Bradley Johnson miss the Tuesday evening clash. The third outgoing from the starting-11 was by choice, as Liverpool loanee Harvey Elliott dropped to the bench. In their place came Ryan Nyambe, Lewis Holtby and Sam Gallagher, the latter of whom grabbed the equaliser on Saturday. There were quite a few milestones amongst the Rovers ranks ahead of kick-off, as Sam Gallagher racked up 100 appearances in the Blue and White of Rovers, whilst Tom Trybull was set to play his 150th club career league game. The final pair of milestones were for Rovers’ top-goalscorer, Adam Armstrong who capped off his 250th club career appearance with his 100th start for Rovers in the league.
As the extremely loud sound system boomed around Deepdale, it was Rovers who won the toss and took the kick-off, as they were hoping to end their hoodoo, given that they had failed to taste victory away at Preston North End, since Paul Lambert’s first game in charge, on 21st November 2015, which ended 2-1 to Rovers following a Jordan Pickford own goal, a Jordan Rhodes penalty and a Joe Garner strike.
The first attempt of the game fell the way of the visitors, after Ben Brereton displayed some good movement to try and get a shot away in the 9th minute. The forward crossed across the edge of the box before trying a right-footed snapshot that dribbled harmlessly wide of Declan Rudd’s goal.
The affair quietened down with both sides having spells of possession, until the 18th minute, where Rovers came within inches of taking the lead, courtesy of Adam Armstrong. Following a set-piece, the ball fell to Joe Rothwell, whose cross towards the far-post was volleyed towards goal by Darragh Lenihan. The centre-half’s effort was denied by a combination of Declan Rudd saving and his defence blocking, however it was spilled into the path of Adam Armstrong, whose subsequent strike was inadvertently blocked by Sam Gallagher, as Preston dealt with the danger.
PNE’s playmaker, Alan Browne soon became the first player to find a spot in referee Tony Harrington’s book, for the evening, after he infringed upon Barry Douglas.
Adam Armstrong again tried his luck, this time from 40-yards out, but his powerful effort didn’t trouble the PNE backline, as it flew over the crossbar.
The 37th minute saw Rovers earn a booking of their own, as Tom Trybull was booked for fouling inside his own half.
Rovers soon saw luck fall in their favour, as Sam Gallagher was fouled in the penalty area by Joe Rafferty, who subsequently received his marching orders after he was shown a red card, in the 44th minute. With Rovers now given the opportunity from the spot, the responsibility fell to the ‘Angel of the North’ who needed no second invitation to tuck the ball home into the bottom-left-hand corner of Rudd’s goal, to give Rovers the 1-0 lead their overall performance deserved.
That penalty proved to be the last piece of goalmouth action of the half, as after three uneventful minutes of time were added onto the end of the first period, referee Tony Harrington called time on a half that Rovers had totally dominated.
Alex Neil would have been fuming during the break, not only due to the sending off and the penalty decision, but due to the fact that his side had failed to register an attempt at goal throughout the whole first 45 minutes of the tie. The Scot would have been in deep thought with his coaching staff – which included former Rover Paul Gallagher – about how they could go about turning the game in their favour, with ten men.
Tony Mowbray, in contrast, would have been pleased with his side’s dominant play, with the Blues holding 70% possession by half-time. The boss would have been quick to remind his players of the recent disasters that they had suffered at Deepdale and would have been adamant that, those results could not repeat themselves, given the game’s situation and Rovers’ ambitions for the season.
Just before PNE got the game back underway, via Emil Riis Jakobsen, Alex Neil made his first alteration of the game, both in formation and personnel as after switching to a 3-5-1 system, he introduced the tough-tackling midfielder, Brad Potts, in-place of former Celtic winger, Scott Sinclair, in a bid to try and claw themselves back into the game.
Rovers wasted no time in starting the second-half, exactly how they ended the first, as within eight minutes of the restart, Rovers managed to double their lead to 2-0, courtesy of a fine finish from Ben Brereton, who picked up his second goal in three games. Joe Rothwell picked the ball up in the centre of the park and drove forward towards goal using his pace. The former Oxford United midfielder had the guile and vision to pick out Brereton, who was making a run ahead of him, as he peeled off the defence. Brereton then only had Rudd to face, as he stroked the ball home, past the on-rushing goalie to double his side’s tally.
The 61st minute saw Rovers rotate their players as Jacob Davenport and Harvey Elliott were introduced in-place of Joe Rothwell and Tom Trybull.
Gallagher tried his luck on the 68th minute, as he tried to replicate the goals he scored in last season’s defeat, yet his strike cutting in from the left just veered wide of the near-post.
After the ball went out of play from Gallagher’s shot, Tony Mowbray decided to make his third and fourth subs of the afternoon, as Stewart Downing and former PNE academy winger, Tyrhys Dolan came on to replace Lewis Holtby and Adam Armstrong.
The 76th minute saw Tyrhys Dolan put the knife deeper into Preston’s wounds by putting any doubts to bed by killing the game off with his third Championship goal of the season. Some more good possession by Rovers saw Brereton break the North End offside trap and get beyond the defenders. The goalscorer had all the time in the world in order to burst into the box and pick out an unmarked Dolan who was lurking around the six-yard box. Brereton obliged with a well-weighted assist that allowed Dolan a first-time karate-kick finish, before cartwheeling into the distance in delight of the 3-0 scoreline.
Rovers’ fifth and final change was enforced as John Buckley came on to replace Harvey Elliott who took a painful knock after Brad Potts clattered into the loanee.
PNE soon responded with a double change of their own on the 80th minute as Jordan Storey and Sean Maguire replaced Darnell Fisher and Emil Riis Jakobsen.
The 82nd minute saw Alex Neil make a fourth change as Jayden Stockley replaced Daniel Johnson.
Rovers soon went in search of a fourth goal to try and exact some sort of revenge over Preston, yet John Buckley’s attempt on the 85th minute deflected wide of the mark.
Gallagher thought he’d grabbed his second in as many games, and replicated Saturday’s heroics, after he converted a low cross from Barry Douglas in the 89th minute, but the goal was ruled out for offside.
As the 90th minute grew near, referee Tony Harrington added on an extra four minutes of time.
Despite Rovers controlling possession and going for the odd unsuccessful attack, added time ended without much pulsating action as Rovers managed to extend their undefeated run to four games, which will surely go a long way to pump more life back into Rovers’ post-international break run.
After hinting in Saturday’s report that the performance against Luton wasn’t quite what the fans might have been hoping, it’s fair to say that this result is the complete opposite of that, with PNE always being a tricky game for Rovers to overcome, as recent results have shown. Although varying factors need to be taken in to account, such as the red card and Preston’s second-worst home form in the league, where they’ve only picked up one win, from seven home games, this result shows that Rovers are capable of battling it out with the top teams in the division. It remains to be seen, as is the usual case with Rovers, whether they can keep their good form going and create some consistency, both with the team selection – given the climate and the injuries – and the results, which have typically been hot and cold this season, despite the occasional hammering. Although the performance and result were outstanding, the only negative that can be taken from this game is the injury that Harvey Elliott sustained, which forced him to be substituted only 20 minutes after coming on. Hopefully, the withdrawal was more precaution than damage, and that if Elliott did actually emerge with some combat wounds, that it’s not as serious as the events might have suggested.
In terms of the league table, Rovers have managed to gravitate up towards 10th with this victory, after starting the evening in 14th place. After 13 games and 18 points – which sees the team only four points off 6th place – Rovers’ rather healthy positive goal difference of +10 sees them remain as the league’s highest scorers, with only Bournemouth and a revamped Stoke City side their closest rivals, with 21 goals for apiece.
Although the players can be forgiven for potentially wanting to wallow in delight at tonight’s victory, there is no let off in the Championship, as we all know, especially a season as condensed as this. Next up for the Blues is a home encounter to Barnsley, who currently find themselves in mid-table, following a mini-resurgence under new manager, Valérien Ismaël, under whom they’ve only lost two in seven, in the Championship. That encounter with the Tykes is set to be played on Saturday 28th November at 3pm, at Ewood Park. Following that tie, Rovers remain at Ewood, this time to host Millwall on Wednesday 2nd December at 7:45pm. After Tony Mowbray and Gary Rowett butt heads, Rovers are back on the road with London in their sights, as they travel to the brand new Brentford Community Stadium, where – barring any incredible goal action from individual forwards – the two highest scorers in the league face off, in Adam Armstrong and Ivan Toney, as Brentford host Rovers at their new ground for the first time ever on Saturday 5th December at 3pm.
