Elliott deepens Rooney woes

DERBY’S relegation worries increased after Harvey Elliott’s strike condemned them to a damaging 2-1 defeat at Blackburn last night. Wayne Rooney’s side went ahead against the only team in worse form than them in the last six games when former Rovers loanee Tom Lawrence headed in from close range. They looked comfortable for spells afterwards but gave away two soft goals that turned the game in Blackburn’s favour, through Sam Gallagher’s clever header just before the break — his seventh goal of the season — and Liverpool loanee Elliott marking his 50th senior appearance in style. These are worrying times for Rooney’s men who, despite a decent performance, lost their fourth game in five outings and remain fourth from bottom, four points above Rotherham who have three games in hand. Rovers can breathe a sigh of relief after surely putting any lingering relegation worries to bed following an encouraging second-half display in particular. Derby went ahead via Lawrence’s header, but their profligacy was punished when Gallagher was afforded space to skilfully flick a header beyond keeper David Marshall. They conceded again in the 66th minute when Wisdom lost the ball and Adam Armstrong fed Elliott, before the teenager hammered into the bottom-right corner for his sixth goal of the season. Thomas Kaminski parried a rasping Lawrence free-kick five minutes later into the path of Nathan Byrne, whose effort cannoned off a post, before an even better save in the dying minutes saw him tip away Colin Kazim-Richards’ header. Byrne’s stoppage-time corner went agonisingly close to going straight in, but Kaminski intervened before the last play of the game saw Louie Watson go down in the box to no avail, leaving the Rams furious.