Rovers were able to see off a nervy final 10 minutes, as they managed to sneak a 1-0 win past a solid Southend United side and edge ever closer to securing automatic promotion to the Championship, at the first time of asking.
Prior to the game, Tony Mowbray talked about how his side had improved over the course of the season since the Blues’ opening day defeat to the Shrimpers. Additionally, the manager also talked about how he expected his side to go into the game with total focus, concentration and application, in order to come away with all 3 points.
The side which lined-up to try and exact some revenge over Southend, saw 1 change to the side that beat MK Dons 2-1, on Easter Monday. Marcus Antonsson dropped to the bench and was replaced by Craig Conway, who was looking to score in back-to-back home games.
Prior to kick-off, there was a minute applause in memory of Ray Wilkins, who sadly passed away on Wednesday (4th April) at the age of 61. Following the proceedings, Rovers soon got the game underway through Bradley Dack, as the Blues looked to extend their league at the top of the league.
Although Rovers were looking to start strongly, the first chance of the game fell to former Burnley winger, Michael Kightly, who was looking to silence the home crowd’s jeers, with a header at goal. After breaking free of Rovers’ shaky defence, the 32-year old was unable to direct his header on goal as Rovers were awarded a goal-kick.
On the 12th minute, disaster struck for Rovers as Bradley Dack fell to the floor and called for some medical assistance for a suspected hamstring injury. Although the Player of the Season nominee tried to carry on playing, he was unable to continue in the game as Jack Payne came on to replace him. One sight which would have eased the fans however, would have been that Dack was able to walk off the field with no assistance, which would suggest that the injury is a niggle.
6 minutes after Dack’s departure, Southend were presented with another chance to take the lead as they crossed in a corner that was met by the heel of Simon Cox, who tried to backheel the ball into the net, but thankfully for Rovers, Raya saved the unorthodox effort.
On the 34th minute, with hardly a shot being created in the game by either side, the game and crowd burst into life when Danny Graham was seemingly pulled down in the box as he tried to get a shot away on goal. Despite the home crowd and Graham’s protests, referee Andy Woolmer waved away the claims by the Rovers contingency. As protests occurred, play continued as the ball dropped into the path of Craig Conway, moments after Graham was tackled, but the Scot was unable to put Rovers in-front as the ball sailed over the bar.
2 minutes after Conway’s attempt, Jason Demetriou crafted a chance of his own, as the right-back dispossessed Adam Armstrong and charged towards goal before releasing an ambitious effort that, like Conway’s effort, flew over for a goal-kick.
On the 44th minute, Adam Armstrong stormed through on goal after breaking free of the Southend defence, but the visiting backline managed to haul the forward down in an attempt to stop him from putting Rovers in-front. Although the Rovers fans were, again, incensed as the referee waved the claims away, the play continued as the ball fell to the feet of Danny Graham who was unable to put the Blues ahead as Mark Oxley denied the experienced striker.
With the break approaching, the referee added on 2 extra minutes of time on the end of the first-half, but despite adding more time onto the half, neither side was able to capitalise and take the lead.
As the referee blew for half-time, both sets of fans would have been disappointed with the displays from their respective teams as neither side had done enough in the first period to warrant the entry fee. Tony Mowbray would have been furious as to how his side weren’t awarded a penalty, but he would have been more annoyed with the lack of chances that his side created throughout the half. Chris Powell, in the opposite dugout, would have been satisfied with his side’s defensive efforts as they managed to keep the back door closed against the few chances that Rovers had had.
Once the players had reappeared for the second-half, Southend were the side who restarted the game as they looked to break the deadlock.
7 minutes after the second period kicked-off, Simon Cox found himself through on goal following the visitor’s counter-attack, but the former Nottingham Forest man was unable to put his side into the lead as Charlie Mulgrew did extremely well to recover and block Cox’s effort.
As Cox was denied, Rovers managed to spring a counter-attack of their own, which saw Elliott Bennett charge forward with the ball and whip in an inviting ball into the path of Graham’s head. Despite Graham meeting the ball, the forward was unable to combine accuracy to the contact, as Mark Oxley produced a comfortable save to deny Rovers.
Minutes after Graham’s attempt, the forward was given a better opportunity to try and break the deadlock. Craig Conway was able to collect the ball and find Danny Graham who was lurking inside the penalty area. The ball reached Rovers’ number 10 who had more time than he thought he did, as he took a first time shot on goal, which was well smothered by Oxley.
Graham’s bad luck soon ended, on the hour mark, as he was finally able to beat Oxley with a well-timed header to put the Blues into the lead after some good play by Bennett and Conway. The makeshift right-back combined with the right winger to break away from the Southend full-back, which allowed Conway to float in a delicious ball towards the back-post which only needed a tap in to find the back of the net. Although Graham was tighly marked, the forward did extremely well to stoop down and head the ball into the back of the net, to give Rovers the all needed goal, to go ahead and extend their lead at the top of the league.
Chris Powell reacted to conceding the goal, 6 minutes after the ball hit the back of the net, as he brought on Theo Robinson as an attacking outlet, in place of Dru Yearwood.
3 minutes after being introduced, Robinson was through on goal as he used his pace to get beyond Downing and Mulgrew, but he despite beating the defence, he was unable to beat Raya in goal, as the Spaniard produced a fine stop to keep his side in the lead.
On the 72nd minute, Rovers had a corner which was played short and subsequently crossed into the box. The crossed ball fell to the feet of Derrick Williams who was unable to keep his effort on target, as his shot was smashed wide of Oxley’s front-post.
Tony Mowbray used this stoppage in play to make his final two substitutions as Craig Conway and Danny Graham departed and were replaced by Marcus Antonsson and Dominic Samuel.
With Mowbray making his final two changes, his opposite number, Chris Powell decided to replicate the decision and play his own two substitutes. Shayon Harrison and Marc-Antoine Fortuné were introduced for Michael Kightly and Stephen McLaughlin.
With a minute of normal time remaining on the clock, Southend had a call for a penalty waved away by the referee, which began a lengthy melee between both sets of players as Paul Downing and Simon Cox emerged from the spat with yellow cards to their names.
Mr. Woolmer rounded up normal time by adding on an extra 4 minutes to the end of the second-half as Southend began to pile on the pressure.
With whistles emerging from all 4 corners of Ewood Park, Southend threw everything at Rovers to try and salvage something from the game. As the ball was drilled into the box which was filled with bodies from both sides, David Raya produced an incredible goal line save after the ball deflected towards goal off Rovers’ skipper, Charlie Mulgrew.
Despite the agonising ending to the game, the referee eventually called an end to the game which put Rovers fans through all sorts of emotions by the time full-time was called.
Following this victory, Rovers remain as the leaders in League 1 with 85 points, which sees the Blues only have to tackle 6 more opponents before the campaign comes to a close. With Wigan beating MK Dons 5-1 this weekend, the race for automatic promotion has not cooled down and will continue to run until the final whistle of the season is blown. In terms of how Wigan and Shrewsbury are looking, the former have moved up to 83 points, whilst still having a game in hand. The latter meanwhile, remain on 81 points having not played this weekend, due to their Checkatrade Trophy final on Sunday, against Lincoln City.
With the final 6 games of Rovers’ season drawing ever near, the next game in which Rovers are in action, comes on Tuesday night (10th April), where they travel back down to Gillingham following the game’s original postponement. Following this encounter, the Blues are back on the road a week from today, as they make a trip down to the west country to face Bristol Rovers. Once these two away trips are complete, Mowbray’s men return to action at Ewood on the Thursday 19th April, as they face Peterborough United, in-front of the Sky Sports cameras.
