Blackburn extended an unbeaten run to 16 League One games on Saturday when Richard Smallwood scored a winner against Fleetwood six minutes from time to move Rovers above Shrewsbury into the second, and automatic promotion.
A half time lead was deserved, coming Blackburn’s way courtesy of Bradley Dack’s goal ahead of the half hour mark.
Having been denied by the woodwork twice, as we aimed to extend the lead, firstly through Derrick Williams’ header and then Danny Graham – after the break – Conor McAleny made the most when intercepting Charlie Mulgrew’s attempted back pass to go round David Raya to score.
Smallwood ensured the points belonged to Blackburn though when curling past Fleetwood goalkeeper Chris Neal on 84 minutes.
Tony Mowbray thought Blackburn controlled the most part of the game and ended up gaining the three points deserved, which allowed the travelling fans to return to Lancashire happy, even if the boss wasn’t as happy a clean sheet wasn’t secured.
‘It would’ve been hard on us had we not got the three points today. We almost shot ourselves in the foot by giving them a goal but I think we deserved it over the piece. We’re disappointed to lose goals, it’s important for the team to keep clean sheets but it’s another tricky hurdle out of the way,’ the boss told the Official Website.
Mowbray added: ‘I thought it was as controlling as we’ve been away from home this season. They had one shot straight at David but apart from that they didn’t get near our goal. We’ve won the game and sent an amazing away support home happy and hopefully full of confidence.’
Now into the top two it’ll be the intention of keeping it that way, if not hunting down Wigan, in an ideal world, to win the League One title.
