Shef Serves Up Late Point

A late equaliser from Shefki Kuqi earned Rovers a point as the closed in the race for Europe.

The game was a chance for Blackburn to go level with Spurs in the race for fourth place but the match was overshadowed by referee Phil Dowd who managed to incense Wigan boss Paul Jewell as well as upsetting the home side.

The officials disallowed what seemed two perfectly good goals from Morten Gamst Pedersen and Arjen De Zeeuw before allowing Shefki Kuqi strike to stand despite an obvious foul on Wigan keeper John Filan.

Blackburn came into the game full of confidence. They beat Wigan at the JJB on New Years Eve 3-0 and since the turn of the year they haven?t looked back. Climbing from mid-table to within contention for the Champions League spots and in doing so claiming more points than even Manchester United.

Despite being a local derby it resembled Rovers season in the fact that it took a while to get going. It was sparked into life after De Zeeuw obstructed Bellamy on the edge of the box. Morten Gamst Pedersen fired the free-kick under the Wigan wall, but Filan bundled the ball out for a corner. Filan was again tested from the corner as he turned another Pedersen effort over the bar.

Pedersen finally managed to beat Filan on 37 minutes but the goal was disallowed for a foul on Filan by Paul Dickov, but was contact minimal contact and certainly less than the contact that proceeded Blackburn?s equaliser.
The officials evened up the disallowed goals score by chalking off a strike by De Zeeuw three minutes before half-time. The assistant ref flagged for offside against Roberts, even though TV replays showed he was onside as De Zeeuw pounced on his own knockdown to score.
Despite the best efforts of the officals the deadlock was finally broken on 53 minutes when Jimmy Bullard swung the ball in for Pascal Chimbonda to connect with a header, Jason Roberts then applied the deftest of flicks to beat Friedel.
Rovers struggled to get back into the game but were given a slice of luck when Kuqi benefited from a fumble by Filan after he had been bundled over by Lucas Neill.
Blackburn then finished the stronger side, but Wigan held on to claim a point and deny Rovers a sixth straight home win.