Blackburn Rovers were given a World Cup distraction and handed their heaviest defeat of the campaign by local neighbours, Preston North End, who ran out comfortable winners at Ewood Park, by a 4-1 scoreline, ahead of the midday clash in-front of the Sky Sports cameras on a snowy Saturday.
With the international tournament taking centre stage, the four week break gave Rovers a chance to rest and recuperate following their embarrassing 3-0 away defeat at bitter rivals Burnley, in their last league outing. Sandwiched between the two league fixtures, were friendly victories in Marbella against Heart of Midlothian (4-0) and AFC Ajax (2-0), where all the squad received a runout.
There were four changes to the side that suffered defeat at Turf Moor, as Scott Wharton, Hayden Carter, Sammie Szmodics and Bradley Dack replaced Daniel Ayala, Clinton Mola, Jake Garrett and Sam Gallagher, with only Garrett unavailable from the bench due to injury.
As the optimism returned back to Ewood Park, despite the cold conditions, it was Rovers who got the game underway, as they looked to try and return to winning ways and notch up their second Lancashire Derby victory of the season, after the win at Blackpool and the defeats to Wigan Athletic and Burnley.
With the intensity of the game high, Callum Brittain was forced off the field in the 7th minute after an pulling up inside his own half. The defender was soon examined by the medical staff and replaced by Clinton Mola, as Ryan Hedges swapped over to the right-hand side.7
In the 15th minute, a Rovers corner saw Tyler Morton find a combination of Hayden Carter and Dom Hyam, but ball flew over Freddie Woodman’s crossbar harmlessly.
As Preston played the ball almost aimlessly long, Rovers tried to play out from the back and got themselves into a muddle as a poor pass from Scott Wharton saw him give the ball away in the centre of the pitch. As Preston moved the ball forward, a well-weighted through ball by Ched Evans was driven into the on-rushing path of Ben Woodburn saw all of Rovers’ backline lacking cover on the right-hand side, as the former Liverpool man kept his composure to slot past Thomas Kaminski to put the visitors 1-0 to the good.
Rovers continued to knock at the door with no answer, as a Ryan Hedges half-volley in the 32nd minute angled wide of the mark.
Somehow, despite the succession of fouls from both sides, it took until the 35th minute for the first booking to appear from referee Josh Smith, as Hayden Carter was cautioned for strong, but firm challenge/
Three minutes later, Rovers looked to build up a head of steam as Tyler Morton looked to find Sammie Szmodics, but the midfielders couldn’t combine as the ball proved too high for the ex-Peterborough United man.
In the 44th minute, Ched Evans became the second player to be booked after a very late swipe at Scott Wharton.
With the break looming, Josh Smith allocated three added minutes, which both sides failed to capitalise on, as the half-time whistle soon came.
Jon Dahl Tomasson would have had a lot of head scratching to do at the break, as his side had failed to even lay a glove on the opponents during the first period. With Rovers looking lethargic and slow out of the traps, the boss would have been hoping to inspire his players towards a second-half comeback.
Ryan Lowe would have been delighted with the intensity and pressure that his side showed throughout the first 45 minutes. The aggression and competitiveness that the Lilywhites showed, despite their increased injury crisis, proved that they were great value for their lead at the break.
Once the teams had returned from the warmth and into the frost, a change of ball came with the swapping of sides as the yellow ball emerged, just in-time for Daniel Johnson and Preston North End to get the game underway in the hope they could secure three points and move one place below Rovers, into 4th.
A lot of the support were barely back in their seat by the time Ched Evans had doubled the visitors’ lead in the 47th minute, as again, the visitors burst out of the dressing room and again showed their tenacity and skill to go 2-0 up. Rovers managed to play themselves into trouble, not once, but twice, as Dom Hyam’s blind back-pass nearly saw Rovers concede as Thomas Kaminski’s clearance deflected off Daniel Johnson and behind for a goal-kick, but the disaster didn’t stop there, as Rovers played the ball directly into the feet of the visitors from the short goal-kick, with Lewis Travis’ dallying costing him, as Preston’s press dispossessed the Blues skipper, before a low Johnson cross was swept home by an unmarked Ched Evans.
Rovers looked to try and sort themselves out by the 56th minute, as they got back into the game, courtesy of Bradley Dack pulling one back. Hayden Carter stormed down the right with a world-class run as he beat a number of yellow bodies before standing up a cross towards the back-post, which saw Ben Brereton Díaz knock the ball down to Bradley Dack, who squeezed the ball inside Freddie Woodman’s near-post for 2-1, as the arrears were reduced.
With Rovers’ tails up, attacking changes were made as Tyrhys Dolan and Sam Gallagher replaced Sam Szmodics and Ben Brereton Díaz, in the 58th minute, as Rovers moved to a 4-2-3-1 system, with Ryan Hedges, goalscorer Dack and substitute Dolan supporting Gallagher.
The shuffle seemingly led to more disorganisation from the home side, despite some more intensity going forwards, as only five minutes later, Ched Evans restored North End’s two-goal lead and notched himself a brace. Rovers looked static again as they lost the ball in midfield and allowed Preston to build play up as they shifted the ball from right to left. As Ben Woodburn pinned down Dom Hyam in the corner, the first scorer managed to roll the ball back for ex-Rover Greg Cunningham, who delivered a delicious cross into the box for Ched Evans to meet, as he sneaked in ahead of Scott Wharton to power a header past Kaminski and put Preston back into a more comfortable position at 3-1.
3-1 soon became 4-1, just two minutes later, as the visitors scored the goal of the game with a beautiful slick passing move that left Rovers statuesque and frozen in the Ewood snow. Preston moved the ball out the back as Woodman found Cunningham who played a long searching ball into the path of Woodburn who was battling with Carter. Álvaro Fernández made the overlapping run and latched onto the loose ball before his cutback found Johnson, who showed his awareness to backheel the ball into the path of Ben Whiteman who was streaming forwards from deep and the former Doncaster Rovers skipper didn’t even need to a touch to steady himself as he took the ball into his stride from outside the area, as a slight deflection beat Thomas Kaminski for 4-1.
In the 70th minute, Tyler Morton looked to try and reduce the embarrassment, but his attempt deflected easily into the hands of Woodman.
Sam Gallagher saw a header saved in the 85th minute as the confidence well and truly drained out of Rovers like a burst balloon.
Preston’s first change of the game came late on in the 87th minute as Finlay Cross-Adair replaced the goalscorer, Ched Evans.
Josh Smith added three extra minutes onto the end of the game as Preston filled the time with substitutes as academy graduates Jacob Slater, Noah Mawene and Mikey O’Neill replaced Álvaro Fernández, Ched Evans and Daniel Johnson who was booked for timewasting upon his departure.
Moments after the changes and with Ewood Park nigh-on empty of home supporters, Josh Smith brought the contest – which was no contest, really – to an end.
Rather impressively, Rovers managed to put in a more unimpressive performance in this Lancashire Derby, than they did in the last one. No fight, no passion, no organisation and an unbalanced team allowed Preston North End to plant their White and Yellow flag in the Ewood Park centre circle. Whilst Jon Dahl Tomasson and his team had impressed during the World Cup break, lessons from the previous league encounter had not been learned, with Rovers failing to play both the occasion and the game, opting to persist with a style that played right into the hands of the depleted opposition. Although the balance of the team was disrupted following the early departure of Callum Brittain, we’ve seen on many occasion this season that Ryan Hedges is capable of operating in an inverted right-wing-back role, however, his want to cut inside when Rovers were in possession proved vital for PNE’s gameplan, as their three second-half goes came on the counter, when Hedges was out of position. Rovers were also not helped by poor form, poor passing and an almost non-existent midfield who were completely bypassed.
Despite being hammered in two consecutive derbies, and holding the most losses in the division, Rovers remain in third from 22 games, with 36 points and a now minus goal-difference of -1.
The next trip which is a league fixture will see Rovers face their FA Cup Third Round opponents Norwich City, which will be Rovers’ second successive Sky Sports fixture, and will be broadcast live from Carrow Road on Saturday 17th December. After that clash, the Carabao Cup Fourth Round rolls into town, as Rovers host Nottingham Forest on Wednesday 21st December at 7:45pm, before another Sky Sports controlled affair as a Boxing Day trip to Tony Mowbray’s Sunderland, at 12:30pm is prepared, much to the sheer sarcastic delight of the Blues fans.
