Rovers’ return from the international break was a frustrating one, as they failed to patch up their defensive issues, allowing an in-form, playoff seeking Aston Villa side, to extend their winning run to 5 in a row, as they took full control of a well-earned victory at Villa Park.
Following the return to fitness of Darragh Lenihan, Charlie Mulgrew and Jack Rodwell over the break, Tony Mowbray, who was leading Rovers for the 100th time in the league, made 5 changes to the side that were battered 4-2 at Hillsborough against Sheffield Wednesday, in mid-March. Skipper Charlie Mulgrew, Darragh Lenihan, Amari’i Bell, Craig Conway and Adam Armstrong all returned to the first-team to replace, Tyler Magloire, Joe Rothwell, Derrick Williams, Corry Evans and Harrison Reed respectively, as the Blues reverted to their more familiar 4-2-3-1 formation. Among the returns, there were also a milestone for Bradley Dack, who notched up his 200th career league start after being named on the teamsheet.
With over 1,100 Lancastrians being housed in the Doug Ellis Stand, they would have been looking on, as Villa took the kick-off, with the hope of quelling the disastrous defensive displays of recent times, in order to grab a result that would elevate them and their team away from the drop zone.
Such hope soon diminished after 8 minutes of play, which saw Villa take an early lead. Some good possessional play and movement on the edge of the Rovers area, saw John McGinn lob the ball over the Rovers backline, before finding Anwar El-Ghazi, who after overcoming the appeals for offside from the Rovers players, managed to cut the ball back across the face of goal to allow the on-loan Chelsea forward, Tammy Abraham, to tap Dean Smith’s side into a very early 1-0 lead.
The dominant hosts continued to pile the pressure on Rovers, as they nearly grabbed a second on the 14th minute, after Tammy Abraham produced a fine save from David Raya who denied the goalscorer his second of the afternoon. John McGinn was played through down the channel, before cutting it back to Abraham, who did well to turn and shoot first-time, however unluckily for him, the move didn’t lead to the finish it deserved, as the shot, which was straight at Raya, was parried away to safety.
It could have easily been 3-0 to the hosts had Abraham’s second effort gone in, as John McGinn soon wound up a trademark strike from the edge of the area, a minute later, which saw Raya struggle to keep it under his control. The Scottish international received Jack Grealish’s pass, before striking an effort first-time with his left-foot from outside the penalty area, which left Raya in a spot of bother after nearly spilling the swerving effort into the path of Abraham, before reclaiming the ball.
From Raya’s claim, Rovers were able to move up the pitch and earn their first shot of the game, which came agonizingly close to being an equaliser. A deep Charlie Mulgrew corner was nodded back across the face of goal by Danny Graham, into Darragh Lenihan’s path, who saw his header blocked off the line. The blocked effort saw the ball spin out to Craig Conway, whose precise right-footed strike cannoned back off the crossbar, before Mulgrew himself blazed over from a tight angle.
The skipper was again involved in the action, this time defensively, on the 18th minute. His misplaced pass allowed Villa to counter-attack through Abraham, however Mulgrew was on hand to perfectly execute a last-ditch tackle which saw Abraham’s chances of getting a shot away from inside the penalty area, thwarted.
On the 21st minute, Villa countered with venom, as Glenn Whelan, Andre Green and John McGinn all combined to allow the latter to strike at goal. Whelan hit a long pass into Green’s path, who went past Amari’i Bell and slid McGinn through, who drove past Mulgrew and hit a low effort at goal. Despite his prolificacy in-front of goal this season from a midfield position, the former Hibernian man was unable to add to his tally of 5 league goals for the season, as Raya produced a fine finger-tip save to push the ball onto the post, before seeing it cleared by Adam Armstrong.
The first booking of the game came on the 26th minute, as Elliott Bennett clattered into the Scottish international, McGinn on halfway.
3 minutes later, Abraham and McGinn continued their assault on the Rovers goal, as the former saw his shot blocked by the returning Lenihan, whilst the latter’s long-range effort was comfortably saved by Raya.
Raya again was on hand to keep the scores at 1-0, on the 31st and 35th minutes, as he held onto efforts by, first Green and then Grealish, with respective ease.
Despite Rovers getting forward on a couple of occasions, by the time an extra minute was added onto the end of the first-half, they – barring the consecutive efforts from Lenihan and Conway – barely troubled Villa ‘keeper Jed Steer, as the half-time whistle was soon blown, but not before some controversy during the final added minute, as Anwar El-Ghazi saw his tap-in from close range ruled out for offside after the Lille loanee re-directed Neil Taylor’s seemingly goal-bound strike into the net.
During the break, Dean Smith would have entered his dressing room the happier of the managers, after witnessing his side continue their fine form with a dominating performance during the first period which also saw them take the lead.
Contrastingly, Tony Mowbray would have been close to tearing his hair out due to the manner with which the home side had grabbed the only goal of the game, and he would have been determined to instil a positive mentality into his players during the break in order to get them fired-up and on the front-foot during the second period.
Once the second-half was restarted by Rovers, it was the visitors who enjoyed the possession during the opening stages as Bradley Dack saw his 51st minute shot blocked by Tyrone Mings, before Amari’i Bell’s 56th minute cross after some good possessional play by Rovers, was well caught by Villa ‘keeper Steer.
On the hour mark, Rovers made their first change of the afternoon as the booked Elliott Bennett was retracted and replaced by Harrison Reed.
It didn’t take long for Villa to capitalise on Rovers’ lack of positional rigidity following the substitution as the on-loan Bournemouth defender, Tyrone Mings, extended his loan side’s lead to 2-0, with a cushioned header into the left-hand side of Raya’s net. The remains of a Villa free-kick saw Rovers confused with their marking duties, as the ball made it out to John McGinn who lofted in a sublime ball which was inviting enough for Mings to outjump Mulgrew and nod towards goal. Despite Mulgrew marking Mings, the Rovers captain could only reach the on-loan man at the last second, as Mings managed to climb above Mulgrew and cushion a header which bounced into the ground and past the despairing David Raya, as Villa doubled their lead to 2-0.
On the 64th minute, Rovers tried to get themselves back into the game through the returning centre-back partnership, as Mulgrew saw his corner find Lenihan, however the Republic of Ireland international was unable to keep his header on target as Villa were awarded a goal-kick.
A minute later, Danny Graham and Adam Armstrong combined, as the former threaded through the latter, however the 22-year old was unable to find the net, as his curling effort flew wide of the Villa upright.
The through ball by Graham was his last involvement in the game as he and Dack were removed and replaced by Joe Rothwell and Ben Brereton on the 66th minute.
Simultaneously, Villa also made their first change of the game as Albert Adomah was introduced in-place of Andre Green.
Minutes after coming on, both Rothwell and Brereton combined to set-up Armstrong who had a legitimate call for a penalty waved away by referee Robert Jones. The substitutes managed to play some fluid football before linking up with Armstrong who used his pace to get into the box, before he was seemingly pushed in the area, however Rovers were not awarded the spot-kick they would have hoped for.
Rovers soon found a route back into the affair on the 73rd minute, after Craig Conway was brought down around 25-yards out from goal. The awarding of the free-kick signalled for Mulgrew to try his luck, however despite his effort, being parried by Villa ‘keeper Steer, it was Amari’i Bell who grabbed his third Rovers goal in his last 6 games – with all being away from home – as he hit a right-footed poke into the top right-hand corner past a hopeless Steer to reduce the arrears to 2-1.
On the 77th minute, Villa’s midfield dynamo John McGinn became the first and only Villa player to fall into the referee’s book as he brought down Joe Rothwell.
Rothwell didn’t let Villa’s determinedness to take him out, deter him, as on the 85th minute, he managed to tip-toe his way into the Villa box before seeing his shot fly wide of the goal, much to the frustrations of the Rovers fans.
With Villa only utilising 2 of their 3 available subs in this game, their second and final change came on the 87th minute as Jack Grealish was withdrawn, as Conor Hourihane – who score a last-gasp equalising free-kick in the reverse fixture at Ewood Park – was brought on to replace the Villa captain.
Hourihane’s impact on the game was instant, as it only took him a few minutes to link up with Tammy Abraham by threading through a Premier League quality pass, past Rovers’ defence, to leave the on-loan Chelsea forward with only Raya to beat. Unfortunately for the forward, however, he could not increase his matchday goal tally to 2 as he blazed over from close range.
With full-time approaching, referee Robert Jones added on an extra 5 minutes, which Rovers took as an incentive to try and snatch an equaliser.
In the 91st minute, they earned a corner, however saw it punched to safety by Steer.
The final act of the game saw Ben Brereton penalised for a foul on Villa’s goalscorer Mings, as the referee soon blew for full-time moments later to consign Rovers to their 16th defeat of the season.
With the international break coming at a good time for Rovers, their defensive efforts were clearly still susceptible and error prone, as shown by this result. Whilst the second-half performance was positive, as they were able to craft out numerous chances, including the goal, their ultimate downfall came due to a lack of defensive concentration during the early parts of the game. Whilst the return of the towering Lenihan to the backline was a positive, the overall defensive performance in the first 15 minutes was one which can be heavily criticised, despite them picking up their levels and performing well for a majority of the game after that.
One area which will annoy Rovers and their fans, would be the lack of attacking threat, prior to the introductions of Joe Rothwell and Ben Brereton, after the hour mark. Although one must look at the game through the perspective of it being away at an Aston Villa side who have only conceded 2 goals in their last 5 games, it would have been expected that with the quality of Bradley Dack and Danny Graham, the final match stats would have more than 2 shots on target, for Rovers.
With the final 7 games on the horizon, Rovers currently sit in 16th place with 47 points and a -9-goal difference from 39 games played. In terms of whether they could be affected by relegation, they currently sit 11 points off Rotherham in 22nd who today, lost 6-1 away at Derby County. This state of affairs would indicate that Rovers would more or less be safe with a couple of wins under their belt between now and the end of the season.
Looking forward towards the fixture list, Rovers now have back-to-back home games to enjoy, before making a return to the Midlands in their third game. The first tie sees them host a lowly Stoke City side on Saturday, 6th April at 3pm. Following that game, Mowbray welcomes Frank Lampard’s Derby County on Tuesday, 9th April at 7:45pm, who will be hoping to increase their playoff chances with a win at Ewood Park. Finally, Rovers’ return to the Midlands sees them travel to the City Ground where they will face Martin O’Neill’s Nottingham Forest on Saturday, 13th April at 3pm.
