GRAHAM CAN’T PREVENT IRON FROM CLAWING BACK A POINT
TONY Mowbray praised his side’s endeavour despite being held to a draw by Scunthorpe as the high-flyers served up a League One thriller at Ewood Park.
With both sides desperately chasing Wigan and Shrewsbury, they went toe-to-toe almost throughout in what proved to be a terrific advert for League One.
Rovers boss Mowbray was pleased after the game, content his players had given everything for the cause.
“We probably did enough to win the game. The lads put in a fantastic effort,” said the former West Brom and Middlesbrough boss.
“They showed drive and desire throughout, and that’s what you have to do when you’re in our position.
“We knew we were in for a difficult game. Scunthorpe set up well and were difficult to prepare for. We had to focus on ourselves, though, and overall we applied ourselves well.
“We just shot ourselves in the foot by the way we conceded the goals, but we have to take that on the chin.
“We must take confidence from a performance like this, and we’ll need to do that with a really tough trip to Rotherham ahead of us on Monday. We’ll be ready, but again that’s going to be a really tough game.”
The hotly-anticipated top-of-thetable clash got off to a dramatic start, with both sides having struck before 11 minutes were up.
Rovers drew first blood, with Danny Graham pouncing for his seventh goal of the season and fourth in seven games as he drilled powerfully past Matt Gilks after meeting Ryan Nyambe’s pass.
The Iron responded rapidly, though, with an equally impressive strike.
Kevin van Veen was on the mark this time, lashing his fourth goal in six matches high into the roof of the net from a tight angle after he darted on to Funso Ojo’s through-ball.
Hakeeb Adelakun then drove a shot over the top from 12 yards,
while at the other end Rovers defender Derrick Williams glanced a header onto the roof of the net as he leapt highest to meet Peter Whittingham’s free-kick.
Incredibly, both teams struck again in the opening ten minutes of the second half.
Rovers again went first, with Graham stabbing home from closerange as he met Bradley Dack’s header back towards goal.
It was 2-2 shortly after, though, as defender Conor Townsend made the most of Nyambe’s costly slip, hammering home past David Raya as he converted Duane Holmes’ cross.
The major surprise from then on was that there were no more goals.
Marcus Antonsson blazed wildly over for Rovers, before the woodwork came to Scunthorpe’s rescue shortly before the end.
The hugely impressive Dack turned sweetly inside Ojo before crashing a low shot against the post from eight yards.
Both sets of players looked shattered at full-time, and Iron boss Graham Alexander praised his charges after they had earned their share of the spoils.
“I’m really pleased with the way we competed in the game,” he said.
“It was a body-blow to concede so early, but once again we recovered well. We’ve shown time and again this season that we can respond to going behind.