Blackburn continued their rise up the Sky Bet Championship table with a 2-1 win in the Lancashire derby over Preston, making it their fourth win in five.
Goals from Louis Miller and Andriy Gudjohnsen have lifted Valerien Ismael’s men to 16th place, six points off the play-off places, having lost seven of their first 10 league games.
And in doing so, they prevented their local rivals from seizing the opportunity to move into the automatic promotion places.
Despite the energy and openness of the first ten minutes, there was nothing to shout about in Deepdale’s first half apart from a powerful double save by Blackburn goalkeeper Aynsley Pears after half an hour, first denying Michael Smith and then Andrew Hughes.
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The first half ended in a whirlwind as Preston immediately equalized after Blackburn took the lead.
But the game picked up steam just before the break. After a string of openings, Rovers took the lead when new Australian international Lewis Miller headed home Ryan Hedges’ in-swinging corner.
The joy was short-lived. Less than 80 seconds later, Spurs loanee Alfie Devine was released by Aston Villa loanee Lewis Dobbin and Sean McLaughlin was unable to get his off-balance shot before it crossed the line.
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Andri Gudjohnsen headed to the back post to give Blackburn a deserved lead against Preston in the East Lancashire derby.
Blackburn took the game by the scruff of the neck after the break and re-established their lead shortly after when Ryoya Morishita slotted a free-kick at the far post and Gudjohnsen, the son of former Chelsea frontman Eidur, ghosted in to attempt a header towards the near post.
They were denied a penalty when Andrew Hughes pushed substitute Makhtar Gueye in the face after taking two exquisite touches to control the ball.
Aside from Devine’s acrobatic but misdirected volley and Thierry Small’s powerful drive saved by debutant George Pratt, Preston offered little and slumped to their first league defeat since October 21.
Sherwood: Whiteman should have seen red for ‘horrible’ tackle
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Tim Sherwood and Curtis Davies believe Ben Whiteman should have been in the red for his challenge on Moussa Baradji.
Late in the game at Deepdale, Ben Whiteman was booked for a late tackle on Moussa Baradji, who caught the Blackburn substitute’s shins in a full-blooded tackle.
He only received a yellow card, sky sports soccerTim Sherwood couldn’t believe the decision.
“There’s no question, it’s a red card,” he said.
“He knows he’s coming, and it’s nice to see him because he lifts his legs off the floor to keep himself from getting hurt too badly.”
“It’s a terrible tackle, he jumps and takes him.
“If you trip, you break your leg and the referee sends you off. Why should you get sent off for a serious injury?”
“It’s a shocking tackle. Whiteman should see red 100%.”
Heckingbottom laments, admitting ‘two really poor goals’.
Paul Heckingbottom, Preston:
“From our point of view, we conceded two really poor goals, two set plays. If you concede two set plays in a championship game, it’s going to be an uphill battle. That’s one of the reasons, we didn’t score when we were on top early on. When you put those two things together, it’s going to be a tough, tough game.
“To be fair, even when we were behind we got back in the game and got what we deserved in the first half.
“We were suffocating in the second half, but when we conceded another poor goal we panicked a bit and felt we lost shape in our attempts to get back into the game and left the game too open.
“That game wasn’t too different from a lot of the games we’ve played this season, we just score when we get on top and then it’s a different type of game.”
Ishmael: We are one step ahead.
Valerian Ishmael of Blackburn:
“There is always a lot of energy when you restart a Championship game after the international break. We were strong and solid. After coming into the game for the last 20 minutes of the first half, this was exactly what we wanted until the end of the game.
“In the first minute of the second half we were back in the game on the front foot and knew we had to start again. I liked the improvement in possession in the opposition half. We were less sloppy, more controlled, more focused and had more purpose in the final third than the last two weeks. I think we were a step ahead.”
“I think it was a decent win today. We had a very strong away performance again. It was a good evening for us.”
