Danny on song for below-par Rovers

TONY Mowbray admits his Blackburn side were far from their best, after coming from a goal down to beat Barnet.

Second-half goals from Joe Nuttall, the impressive Danny Graham and Marcus Antonsson cancelled out Simeon Akinola’s opener, but despite being in the hat for the next round, Mowbray was far from pleased.

“I don’t think we played well. You couldn’t even call the second half a good performance”, he said.

“We changed it around to try and give players a chance to show us what they can do. We even changed the formation to suit the players, but it just didn’t work.

“Credit to Barnet for coming here and making it difficult for us. Getting through is the most important thing at this stage. This club should be in the third round, that’s where we want to be.”

It was Rovers who had the better of the opening exchanges, Bradley Dack cut in off the right-hand side, but saw his curling shot deflect just wide with Craig Ross beaten.

But the visitors took a shock lead after half an hour – Jack Taylor pounced on some slack Rovers passing, he went through on goal before squaring to Akinola who provided the simplest of finishes.

Blackburn were much improved after the break, and were level shortly after the hour; Nuttall poking in from ten yards after Dack’s was shot saved.

The hosts were now in the ascendancy, a last-ditch tackle from Ricardo Almeida Santos denied Graham a shot on goal before Nuttall was foiled by Ross.

Graham finally got the goal his play deserved on 70 minutes, racing into the penalty area and driving his shot across Ross and into the top corner. Antonsson ensured Rovers would be in the hat for the next round, as his low drive found the corner of the net from 18 yards.

And Barnet manager Rossi Eames bemoaned the mistakes which led to three goals. “We only have ourselves to blame for all three goals, they were so sloppy,” he said.

“We worked ever-sohard in the first half to get in front. We had a gameplan which we stuck to, we frustrated Blackburn and we deserved our lead. But in the second half all that work was undone.

“All three goals are disappointing. Basic mistakes which is really frustrating. We’re going to have to keep on working to eradicate these problems before our next league match, which of course is our bread and butter.”