Town get firm warning from roaring Rovers

OWEN COYLE was delighted to see his Blackburn side end Newcastle’s nine-game winning run – but the Rovers boss insists it would be wrong to describe the 1-0 away win as a shock.

Charlie Mulgrew’s second-half strike condemned the Magpies to their first defeat since mid-September, and lifted the visitors out of the Championship relegation zone as they prepare to host Town on Saturday.

Blackburn won just one of their opening nine matches in all competitions this season, but they have taken 11 points from their last seven games and were deserved victors at St James’ Park.

Coyle said: “There is a lot of perception in football and people see the table and think Blackburn are a poor team – nothing could be further from the truth.

“We took two points from our first seven games and there was a lot going on at the club. From there after, I think that is now 17 points from 11 games. That is close to play-off form.

“We stuck to the game-plan, we asked them to stand toe to toe, we marked them man for man all over the park. We knew we would have to do a lot of dirty work. (Blackburn goalkeeper) Jason Steele made one wonderful save off (Ciaran) Clark from second phase of a corner. I can’t really remember any other saves. I felt we were a threat all day.

“It was important for us off the back of last week’s win (3-2 at home to Brentford) to try and start an unbeaten run. Now we have to kick on.”

Newcastle’s defeat came after Rafael Benitez made six changes from the side that had won at Leeds last weekend, and the Spaniard conceded he had perhaps erred with his team selection.

Jason Steele made second-half saves to deny Jonjo Shelvey and Ciaran Clark, and Dwight Gayle should have done much better when he failed to find the target with a stoppage-time shot, but Newcastle were uncharacteristically lethargic as they saw their lead at the top of the table cut to two points.

Benitez said: “It was very disappointing because I didn’t like the way we started the game or the way the game was stopping all the time with free-kicks and corners.

“I didn’t like our reaction when we were losing, and we have to do better. I didn’t like the chances we didn’t take, and I didn’t like my decisions. But we cannot change things. We have to analyse what happened before the next game and make sure we don’t make the same mistakes.

“I knew that when you lose a game and you change your players, everyone blames the manager. I knew that. But in the same time, we have to show more character and more personality.

“We didn’t control the game the way we have been doing.”