JORDAN’S IN A SPOT OF BOTHER
RESURGENT Huddersfield earned their slice of fortune at Blackburn according to manager Chris Powell, after former Town favourite Jordan Rhodes missed a penalty in a goalless draw.
On his 100th league game for Rovers since leaving Huddersfield, Rhodes was left to rue his second-half miss as the spoils were shared after an open encounter.
It meant a seventh point in three games for the Terriers since suffering at the hands of Yorkshire rivals Leeds a fortnight ago, and Powell hailed his side’s turnaround.
He said: “I’ve got to be satisfied after the week we’ve had. Seven points is a very good return for us.
“The resilience and commitment of the players was there for all to see. I suppose we earned the luck we had too.
“Blackburn are a decent side and had a lot more possession but we hung in there and actually could have nicked it at the end.
“It’s a good week for us heading into the international break and I’ve got to be very proud of the efforts.
“It was a pleasing performance, and a collective effort defensively from everyone.
“We’ve had a tough start to the season. We’ve got to build slowly as a football club.
“I hope the journey we are on now will take us forward.”
Huddersfield pressed early, Sean Scannell proving a menace on the right as Marcus Olsson and Ryan Tunnicliffe made successive blocks to deny the winger with only four minutes played.
Rovers were grateful to Olsson again on 20 minutes when his crucial touch deflected Nahki Wells’ strike over, after Jack Robinson had skipped past Grant Hanley to feed the striker through on goal.
Blackburn grew into the game as the half wore on though, Craig Conway’s 23rd-minute strike causing some trouble for Alex Smithies after bouncing awkwardly.
Rhodes and Josh King also linked well up front, with the former drawing a good block from Joel Lynch on 34 minutes before feeding King, who headed just wide, a few moments later.
Rhodes provided again on 36 minutes, collecting a loose ball and squaring for Norwegian international King, but Smithies saved comfortably in the Terriers goal.
Rovers’ best chance arrived on the hour though, when Grant Holt handled in the area, and up stepped Rhodes, normally so deadly in these situations.
But the front-man dragged his spot kick wide to the surprise of everyone in the ground. He nearly made amends on 63 min- utes but Smithies just got a touch to his low shot before Hudson denied King a certain goal with an inch-perfect block.
King went close again on 76 minutes, showing good skill to beat Hudson, but Smithies steered wide with his legs.
The deadlock could not be broken though and Blackburn boss Gary Bowyer said:“We are wondering how we have not won the game again. The goal attempts we created were enough to win two games
“Jordan Rhodes has won us loads of games since he’s been here, and he’s going to win us a lot more. It’s disappointing for the lad to miss the penalty, but it’s not solely down to that. It’s always disappointing when your home fans boo, but I think that was more a continuation of our performance against Rotherham.
“What was important was how our young group responded.The clean sheet was something we spoke about after that game.
“We were getting blocks in, throwing ourselves at the ball at the death. I think there are lots of positives for us to take.”