RHODES & RUDY REMAIN RED HOT
Rovers hit men both on target in draw
GARY Bowyer watched his star strike partnership combine once more in the draw against Huddersfield and admitted Jordan Rhodes and Rudy Gestede continue to have their admirers.
Gestede and Rhodes – who have scored over 40 goals between them this campaign – fired home to give Rovers the lead before Jacob Butterfield’s deflected free-kick and Joe Lolley’s magnificent long-range strike ensured the spoils were shared.
But Bowyer, whose side are now six games unbeaten, added his side should have been better and made their advantage count.
“We’ve always got goals in the team,” he said. “The two of them have bagged two more between them and could have had, and should have had, more if we’re being honest.
“They’re like ever other player in the Championship. Everybody’s looking at them. Every player’s in the Championship is for sale and we’re no different.
“Do we want to lose them? No of course we don’t but Liverpool didn’t want to lose Luis Suarez, so every player in the Championship’s for sale.
“I think at 2-0 we should be better and I think that’s probably something that we’ve not done well enough this season is seeing that out and seeing that result through.”
Town nearly took an early lead after skipper Mark Hudson rose highest from a first-minute corner to force Simon Eastwood into a sublime point-blank save.
Conor Coady nearly gave Town the lead when his 22ndminute cross evaded Eastwood and rattled against the frame of the goal.
But ex-Town man Rhodes came back to haunt his former employers after shirking off several challenges in the area and his blocked 26th-minute shot fell to Gestede, whose effort trickled past Alex Smithies.
Blackburn added a second five minutes later through Rhodes who guided Craig Conway’s 31stminute corner into the roof of the net from close range.
The Terriers drew one back when Butterfield’s 39th-minute free-kick took a deflection off the Blackburn wall to fool Eastwood and rattle in off the underside of the crossbar.
And the Yorkshire side nearly levelled a minute later when Oscar Gobern’s ambitious volley a minute later from distance rifled past a diving Eastwood.
Huddersfield substitute Lolley drove at the Blackburn defence before slipping in Nahki Wells but the Town hotshot’s 67th-minute effort was claimed by Eastwood.
But Huddersfield drew level in emphatic fashion when Lolley displayed supreme control and accuracy to rifle home a thunderous 84th-minute strike from 30 yards.
Gobern denied Rhodes his second with a vital 89th-minute block after Conway’s whipped free-kick eventually found the Scotland international, a denial that left Huddersfield boss Chris Powell enthused after the final whistle.
“For him to do that in the 90th minute just shows the belief that is running through the team in both boxes.
“It’s really pleasing for him that he’s doing things like that, getting from box-to-box like that and I am just really pleased for him,” he said.
“It’s great that it ended that way that we didn’t lose after showing all the energy to get ourselves back into the game and at least getting a point.
“We started off the game in very good fashion but found ourselves 1-0 and then 2-0 down which we didn’t deserve but the mentality of the group at the moment is very, very good.
“Maybe over the balance we should have got three points but that is the Championship for you in all honesty.”