OLLIE TECHS DEFEAT ON CHIN

Conor Washington’s powerful header bounced down off the underside of the Rovers bar.

It looked to have crossed the line – only for the referee and a linesman to rule otherwise.

Holloway said: “I had the same view as the fourth official. We couldn’t be really sure but with the players’ reactions, it looked like it was over the line.

“Never mind, we let a goal in at the end, that’s what cost us.

“It truly is the first time I’ve ever scored a goal and lost 1-0. I just ask for professionalism.

“We’re asking referees, fourth officials, assessors to be professional when you’re not giving them the right equipment.

“I don’t need a fourth official stood between me and Owen Coyle, I can tell you that. That man needs to be upstairs, watching a screen, talking to the referee and he would have seen it, and could have had a re-run of it.

“I used to work for the people who do it.

“You don’t need a goal-line machine telling you ‘goal’, ‘no goal’, that costs over £100,000. You don’t need Possession Shots On Target Shots Off Target Blocked Shots Corners Fouls Conceded Offsides Yellow Cards Red Cards that. How can you have a respect campaign, when you can’t respect them yourself and let them have the technology that is available?”

Home fans had voiced criticism of Coyle, but the Blackburn boss urged them to keep backing his team.

“I certainly understand the frustrations in respect of we want to win games,” he said. “There has been loads of stuff 47% 53% 3 7 6 6 2 1 3 6 8 16 2 2 0 3 0 0 going on at the club for a number of years. The bottom line is anybody who knows me, knows how resilient I am, knows how focused I am.

“I totally understand the frustration of you’re at home, it’s 0-0, you want to win, but there’s still time to win.

“People will have their opinion – but the important thing is they keep getting behind the team because when you do that, the players have shown great spirit and they went on to win a tough game.”