Blackburn continued to climb up the Sky Bet Championship standings with a 2-1 Lancashire derby win over Preston, their fourth win in five games.
Goals from Lewis Miller and Andri Gudjohnsen lifted Valerian Ismael’s side into 16th place, six points out of the play-offs after losing seven of their first 10 league games.
In doing so, they prevented their local rivals from seizing the opportunity to advance into the automatic promotion slots.
Despite much promise of energy and openness in the first 10 minutes, there was little to shout about at Deepdale for much of the first half, apart from a strong double save from Blackburn goalkeeper Ainsley Pears in the 30th minute when he denied first Michael Smith and then Andrew Hughes.
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After Blackburn took the lead, Preston quickly equalized and the first half came to an eventful end.
However, the match came to life just before the stoppage. After a series of leads, Rovers took a deserved lead when Lewis Miller, fresh from his international duty with Australia, headed home a loose ball from Ryan Hedges’ inswinging corner.
The joy didn’t last long. Within 80 seconds Spurs loanee Alfie Devine was released by Aston Villa loanee Lewis Dobbin and Sean McLoughlin was unable to get his off-balance shot on target before it split over the line.
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Andri Gudjohnsen heads home at the back post to give Blackburn a deserved lead in the East Lancashire derby against Preston.
Blackburn took the game by the scruff of their necks after the break and re-established their lead moments later when Ryoya Morishita curled a free-kick into the far post and Gudjohnsen, son of former Chelsea striker Eidur, ghost-crossed and headed home at the near post.
Substitute Mahtar Guye made two fine touches to put the ball under control by Andrew Hughes and was denied a penalty when he was shoved in the face.
Preston achieved little apart from Devine’s acrobatic but misplaced volley and Thierry Small’s powerful drive which was blocked by debutant George Platt, resulting in their first league defeat since October 21.
Sherwood: Whiteman should have been given a red for ‘terrible’ tackle
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Tim Sherwood and Curtis Davies think Ben Whiteman should have received a red for his challenge on Moussa Balaji.
There was more talk towards the end of the game against Deepdale, when Ben Whiteman was booked for a late tackle on Moussa Balaji, in which he caught the Blackburn substitute in the shin with a full-force tackle.
He only received a yellow card, but Tim Sherwood told Sky Sports Football he couldn’t believe the decision.
“There’s no question, it’s a red card,” he said
“He knew he was coming and it’s a good job to watch him as he lifts his leg off the floor to avoid getting hurt too badly.
“This tackle is terrible. He jumps and gets taken away.
“If he trips, he breaks his leg and the referee sends him off. Why should he get sent off unless he is seriously injured?”
“That was a shocking tackle. Whiteman should have seen red 100 per cent.”
Heckingbottom laments ‘really poor two goals conceded’
Mr Paul Heckingbottom of Preston:
“From our point of view, we had two really poor goals and two set pieces. If you concede two set pieces in a Championship game, it’s going to be a tough game. That’s one of the reasons why. We didn’t score when we were in the lead early on. When you put those two things together, it’s going to be a tough, tough game.”
“To be fair, even though we were behind, we got back into the game and got the result we deserved in the first half.
“In the second half, we held our breath, but after conceding another poor goal, we panicked a little bit, tried to get back into the game, got out of shape and felt like the game got a little too open.
“That game wasn’t too different from this season. We just scored when we were on top, but after that it’s a different type of game.”
Ismael: It’s a step forward for us.
Valerian Ismael of Blackburn:
“There’s always a lot of energy when you restart the Championship after the international break. We were strong, solid and after coming into the game with 20 minutes left in 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 really into the game on the front foot again and we knew we had to restart again. I liked the improvement in possession in the opposition half. We were less sloppy than the last two weeks, more controlled, more focused, more purposeful in the final third. I think it’s a step forward for us.”
“I think it was a decent win today. It was another very strong away performance. It was a great night for us.”
