Blackburn recorded a first win of the season, recovering from Saturday’s League One opening day defeat at Southend with a League Cup victory at Tony Mowbray’s former side Coventry.
The goals were shared around at the Ricoh Stadium as Rovers ran out 3-1 winners on the night, moving into the second round and preparing for Saturday’s meeting with Doncaster at Ewood Park with a victory.
Corry Evans, acting as something of a new signing for Mowbray this season, was first on the scoresheet with his 20 yard effort beating Coventry goalkeeper Liam O’Brien. However, the Sky Blues were level soon after when Duckens Nazon scored.
Having denied Evans a second minutes earlier Blackburn restored the lead shortly past the half hour mark when Richie Smallwood scored his first goal for the club, putting Rovers ahead again from distance.
Also with his maiden goal for Blackburn, against a former loan club, Dominic Samuel wrapped up the win early in the second half.
Mowbray was looking for a reaction to the Roots Hall defeat and he feels he got it and the boss was particularly pleased, even if he felt Blackburn should have scored more, to see the goals shared around.
‘I was looking for a reaction from Saturday. I thought we played well at times tonight, I thought we asked lots of questions of them, and we looked more like what we had been working on and what we had been trying to put together,’ he told the Official Website.
Adding: ‘I think it is important that the goals come from everywhere. I think we should have scored more goals, we had a few one on ones before they equalised.’
There’s still room for improvement in the performance but Mowbray was definitely pleased to get the ‘right result’ and is looking for Blackburn to take this forward against Doncaster in League One on Saturday.
Mowbray concluded: ‘I thought the balance of the team was okay, they all worked really hard tonight and it is a good performance and the right result for us. We can all concentrate on Saturday now.’
