Despite dominating most of the game, Rovers were forced to push forward in-search of an eventual equaliser, courtesy of Bradley Dack’s 10th goal of the season, to salvage a point against a Rotherham United side who came to Ewood Park with the sole goal of playing for a draw.
Tony Mowbray headed into the game having made 3 alterations to the side that had managed to sneak a victory past Queens Park Rangers last Saturday. Jayson Leutwiler was replaced by the returning David Raya, who was donning a face mask, following the breaking of his nose away at West Bromwich Albion, Derrick Williams departed the side due to a hamstring injury and was replaced by Jack Rodwell, whilst the suspended Corry Evans saw Kasey Palmer take his place in the side.
Prior to kick-off, an impeccable minute’s silence occurred as part of the World War 1 remembrance traditions which, this year, marked a century since the armistice was signed and the guns were silenced.
With the silence perfectly observed, Bradley Dack got the game underway, as Rovers began the game looking to build on their late winner against QPR, which saw the star man slot home a late penalty in Rovers’ last outing.
The first chance of the game, fell to the hosts, as Elliott Bennett took Rovers’ early corner. Despite scoring against Leeds United at a similar time in the game, Rovers failed to repeat their early goal-scoring exploits, as the deep cross was well cleared by the sky blue and yellow wearing visitors.
On the 8th minute, the visitors had their first chance of the game as Joe Newell’s shot from inside the area deflected behind for a corner, which was soon cleared by Rovers.
Rovers’ thought they were through on goal, on the 16th minute, after some good linkup play saw Dack slot through Danny Graham whose shot rolled past the post and went behind, despite being 1-on-1 with Rotherham ‘keeper Marek Rodák. Luckily for the forward, his blushes were spared after the linesman flagged him for offside.
Seconds later, Rotherham found themselves up the other end of the pitch, as Richie Towell tried his luck from around 25-yards out. The midfielder’s dipping effort looked to have been decreasing in altitude at an alarming rate, but thankfully for Rovers, David Raya was able to calmly see it dip onto the roof of his net.
Rovers ramped up the pressure after Towell’s miss, as Adam Armstrong and Amari’i Bell combined down the left-hand side, as the latter broke into the box, before forcing a fine stop from the Fulham loanee, who denied Bell at his near post. The follow-up, saw Dack’s effort skewed wide of the post, despite Rodák scrambling to get back into position.
With 25 minutes of the game gone, Rotherham earnt a corner that Newell lofted into the box. The floated corner met the head of target-man striker, Michael Smith, who tried to claim an assist by heading the ball across the face of goal towards Joe Mattock. The full-back managed to connect with the ball but saw his effort fly over and land amongst the Rovers supporters in the Blackburn End.
9 minutes after what was Rotherham’s best chance of the half, Adam Armstrong created Rovers’ closest opportunity to finding the back of the net, after his curling effort cannoned off the crossbar, following a little help from Rodák. The former Newcastle man picked the ball up on the left-hand side, before gliding past 3 Rotherham players, which included a nutmeg on Zak Vyner. The forward then burst into the box before striking the ball venomously towards goal. Despite his brilliance, Armstrong wasn’t rewarded as a combination of Rodák and crossbar, denied the 21-year old forward.
On the 41st minute, Rovers had a free-kick, taken short by Harrison Reed, which saw Bradley Dack try his luck after receiving the pass. Unluckily for the reigning League 1 Player of the Season, his effort towards goal was blocked by a sea of Rotherham bodies.
As the break edged closer, referee David Webb called for an additional 4 minute to be added onto the end of the first-half.
The final act of the half saw Kasey Palmer win Rovers a corner, but Mowbray’s men couldn’t make anything of the set-piece, as Rotherham cleared it away, as the referee called an end to the half almost immediately after.
Both dressing rooms would have had mixed feeling reverberating around them during the break. Rovers could have classed themselves as ‘unlucky’, due to their number of missed opportunities in the first period, especially that of Armstrong’s, which hit the crossbar. Tony Mowbray would have been sending out a message of encouragement to his players which would have reassured themselves in their abilities, and that certainly showed during the opening stages of the first-half.
Paul Warne, in the opposite dressing room, would have been relatively pleased that his side had made it to the break, still on level terms. Although they had, had a couple of opportunities to potentially open the scoring during the first 45 minutes, none of said chances really tested the returning David Raya, or saw him frantically try and deny the visitors. Warne’s message to his players would have focused on remaining solid and hard to beat in the defensive third, but to also try to use 6’3” Michael Smith as an outlet on the counter-attack.
Both sets of players re-emerged for the second-half, but Rovers returned with a change in their line-up. Harrison Reed departed due to a niggle he had picked up in the first-half and was replaced by Ryan Nyambe. This change saw captain, Elliott Bennett move into the centre of midfield, whilst Nyambe slotted in at right-back.
Minutes after the restart, Danny Graham found himself through on goal, after he was played in behind the Rotherham backline. The experienced forward used all of his experience to get himself on the ball, before turning and firing a low effort towards goal that Rodák easily saved.
Rovers began to pile the pressure on the visitors, as the next chance for Mowbray’s men came less than 2 minutes after Graham’s attempt was saved. Once again, Paul Warne had the on-loan Rodák to thank, after the Slovakian denied Elliott Bennett’s 30-yard effort, in order to keep the scoring goalless.
With just under an hour gone, Rovers had a header, which came from Graham, cleared off the line by Millers’ ‘skipper, Richard Wood, who was in the right position at the right time to deny Rovers the chance at going ahead. Seconds later, Rovers recycled possession and funnelled the ball out wide to Darragh Lenihan, who ended up on the right-wing for Rovers. The Irishman somehow managed to put in a low, cross that had Rodák scrambling to keep out of his net, but thankfully for Rotherham, the Slovakian managed to get his body between the ball and the goal, to prevent Rovers taking a bizarre lead.
On the hour mark, Rotherham made their first change of the game, as Joe Newell departed and was replaced by pacey winger, Jon Taylor.
5 minutes after the Rotherham change, Rodák once again, produced another save which denied Rovers the lead. This time, the save came from Dack, after the midfielder managed to skilfully wriggle through a crowd of Millers defenders, before releasing a late shot, which had given Rodák the time to come out and position himself to block the effort.
With 67 minutes gone on the clock, Armstrong once again used his blistering pace to get beyond Zak Vyner, who was having a torrid afternoon against the Rovers forward. However despite all of Armstrong’s efforts in getting beyond Vyner and into a crossing position, once his final ball had come in, there was nobody in a blue and white shirt to tap Rovers ahead, as Rotherham easily cleared.
On the 70th minute, Rotherham’s second change of the game saw Vyner depart with Ben Wiles replacing him.
A minute after Rotherham’s change, Rovers had another chance to go ahead as Graham once again had a header inside the box. Elliott Bennett’s curling, pinpoint cross perfectly found the head of Danny Graham, who under pressure from a pair of Rotherham defenders, couldn’t direct his nod towards goal, as it trickled wide.
From their goal-kick, Rotherham managed to build-up a head of steam and some solid retention of possession, which culminated in them breaking the deadlock on the 75th minute. Richie Towell laid the ball off to Ryan Williams who was out on the wing. The Australian did well to get beyond Amari’i Bell, before putting in a deep cross that saw Michael Smith out-jump both Darragh Lenihan and Ryan Nyambe at the back-post, before nodding the ball past the despairing David Raya, to give his side a shock lead.
After conceding, Tony Mowbray reacted with a double change that was bursting full of attacking intent. Ben Brereton and Joe Rothwell were introduced in-place of Danny Graham and Richie Smallwood, as the Rovers manager gambled by throwing everyone forwards in an attempt to at least, salvage a point.
On the 79th minute, Rotherham’s goal-scorer, Michael Smith was cautioned.
From the free-kick, Rovers attacked through Adam Armstrong, who once again used his pace to his advantage as he burst past a defender and worked his way into the area before forcing a save from Rodák. From the rebounded effort, Elliott Bennett’s header was put behind for a corner.
From the corner, Rovers managed to recycle their possession of the ball in the hope of grabbing an equaliser, which soon came on the 80th minute, courtesy of top scorer Bradley Dack’s 10th of the season, in all competitions. A burst forward by Ben Brereton saw him pass to Nyambe, who laid the ball off for Bennett to cross. Bennett’s cross deflected off of Ryan Manning and fell into the path of Brereton, who looked from one angle, to be in an offside position. With the flag remaining down, Brereton took advantage of this by squaring the ball across the face of goal – and past the onrushing Rodák – which gave Bradley Dack the simple task of toe-poking the ball home, as he drew Rovers level, at 1-1, with 10 minutes, plus stoppages remaining.
With 3 minutes left on the clock, Dack and Palmer combined, as the latter saw a shot balloon over the crossbar, much to the disappointment of the Blackburn End, behind the goal.
Rotherham made their final change of the game in the latter stages of the game, as Ryan Williams departed and was replaced by former Blackpool forward, Kyle Vassell.
Following a succession of corners, 5 minutes of added time was called for by referee David Webb, as Rovers continued to knock on the Rotherham United door.
As the consecutive corner count rose, the ball soon fell to the feet of newly announced Man of the Match, Adam Armstrong, whose shot on the turn ended up behind the goal, rather than in it, as the final whistle grew closer.
After retrieving the ball, Marek Rodák took the goal-kick, which saw referee David Webb blow for full-time and end, a game which Rovers should have concluded as the victors.
This match, from the outside looking in, was always going to be one which would have upset the footballing purists, simply due to the style of play that both sides tended to adapt. Additionally, with both teams emerging fresh from League 1, the encounter was always going to be a scrappy one, due to the fact that they had extra research on each other, from last season, despite it not making a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. Despite being tipped for relegation this campaign, Rotherham showed that they were easily capable of hurting teams on the break, as they did to Rovers, due to their aerial ability and their physicality. In addition to their counter-attacking mentality, on-loan Fulham goalkeeper Marek Rodák showed his quality and his athleticism in a number of stops, which kept Rovers at bay. In contrast, Rovers, who were poor last week against QPR, substantially improved their performance levels, but lacked that cutting edge which saw them tear teams apart during the latter stages of last season. Although Dack finally broke down the resistance of the Rotherham defence, Mowbray’s men could have easily ended the game with a 3 or 4-1 victory, had the likes of Bell, Graham and Armstrong, converted their chances, alongside Dack, who himself could have bagged a brace.
This draw sees Rovers drop one place into 9th with 26 points to their name and a goal difference of -1 from 17 games. Despite being tipped to finish in the bottom-half of the table this campaign, by many people, Rovers’ strong start to the season has seen them remain in the top-half, whilst still being within reach of a playoff place, with 6th position – occupied by Derby County – only 2 points away from Rovers.
Following the conclusion of this game, we now head into a week-long international break which only sees Darragh Lenihan and Corry Evans go away with their respective nations, due to the injuries to skipper, Charlie Mulgrew, and Derrick Williams. Once the team return to Brockhall, following the break, they face a double header of Lancashire derbies which includes a renewal of last seasons’ rivalry with Wigan Athletic. The first clash sees the Blues travel to Deepdale to play Alex Neil’s revived Preston North End side on Saturday, 24th November, at 3pm, whilst the second encounter, on Wednesday, 28th at 7:45pm, sees Mowbray’s men battle against Wigan Athletic at the DW Stadium.
