Yuki Ohashi scored in stoppage time for Blackburn, who beat Preston 1-0 in new manager Michael O’Neill’s first home game as manager.
The Japanese forward, who came on as a substitute in the 67th minute, gave the hosts a much-needed boost in a hotly contested Lancashire derby, but struggled to find his attacking touch.
The team continued to push, and in the fifth minute of stoppage time, Ohashi scored his seventh goal, perhaps the most important of the season, with a header over the head of David Cornell.
This gave Blackburn their first back-to-back wins since November and ensured they avoided a crisis by six points.
Preston’s three-game unbeaten run came to an end, and although Alfie Devine twice brushed past Kiji, they were unable to capitalize on their early dominance as they missed out on a play-off place.
The visitors got off to a strong start and Devine’s corner kick in the second minute hit the top of the crossbar, but Baraš Toth didn’t seem worried.
Yuki Ohashi scores the winning goal for Blackburn
The Hungarian shot-stopper had too much space in the 10th minute for Luis Dobbin to swipe his shot through Blackburn’s formations, but Toss wisely parried it before the defense could clear it.
O’Neill’s side settled into the game and should have taken the lead when Eilan Kassin swung in a cross from the left and headed in Moussa Balaji, but the midfielder looked wide from six yards out.
Dobbin and Devine were clearly dangerous for Preston, and the pair combined to force Toth into a near-post save as Preston looked to take a left-footed shot after the former’s deft flick pass.
Ohashi celebrates after scoring the winning goal against Preston
Rovers now had Balaji firing a shot from the right towards Matthias Jorgensen, but he was unable to get a decisive touch.
Devine hit the woodwork with his second cross of the game in the 65th minute, and his curling free-kick went past everyone and found the far post.
Rovers then had Jorgensen’s angled shot flicked back by Cornell with his palm, and Balaji hung on with a half-clear, but it just roared over.
Michael O’Neill takes charge of first home game as Blackburn head coach
Balaji missed another great chance five minutes later when he failed to convert Jorgensen’s pinpoint cross from six yards, but Ohashi was arguably in a better position to score.
It was clearly the best development of the game for Blackburn, with Ohashi glancing a header towards goal with 10 minutes remaining, which Cornell had to fend off, but they went close again.
The team finally broke through in the final minutes of stoppage time, when Kashin sent a cross from the left side to the far post, and Ohashi deftly guided it into the goal past Cornell University for a decisive victory.
managers
Michael O’Neill from Blackburn:
“We had to dig deep. In the second half, I thought we shadowed the game. In the first half, Preston probably shadowed the first half, started the game better than us, and probably got into the game after 20 minutes.”
“In the second half we did a lot of good things and had other chances that we could have done a little bit better.
“It looked like the game was going to be 0-0, but we persevered and continued to do what we had to do and obviously Yuki scored a great header, which was a great way to win the game.
“The important thing is that if you can win a match like that, it gives the team real confidence, because they probably haven’t gotten through such a close game on the wrong end of the scoreline in so many games, so everything will help build confidence and belief within the group.”
Mr Paul Heckingbottom of Preston:
“I think anger is a real emotion. Yes, we should have put the point there. Its nature, and yes, it’s anger.”
“It’s okay to lose, but it’s disappointing. In the match itself, I had a feeling that Michael would lead by five points, but he changed things in the second half. We picked a team that could play well against that.
“I felt like we were in control of the game without the threat we wanted. We might have had some territory, we might have had some set pieces, we might have had moments where we controlled the ball, but we didn’t have enough chances at the end.
“If (Andrew) Hughesy hadn’t had to go off, we would have changed things up again and let them do different things at the back because we were playing in front of them too much. We were carrying the threat, as was the case in the first half. In the second half, we played in front of them too much.”
