CO-PILOT TONY LOVING THE RIDE
TONY Mowbray admits it is his players that are flying the plane at Blackburn after Richie Smallwood’s late winner in this Lancashire derby saw them climb into the League One automatic promotion places.
Bradley Dack’s 11th goal of the season put the East Lancastrians ahead at the interval, before substitute Conor McAleny equalised for Fleetwood.
However, Smallwood was on hand to slam home a late winner as Mowbray’s promotion hopefuls leapfrogged Shrewsbury into the top two.
Mowbray said: “It was a big three points. It was deserved and it would have been really hard on us if we hadn’t won after the performance in the first half.
“But we got there in the end! The players are driving this team – I’m just trying to pick the right 11 and trying to give them a bit of inspiration along the way. They know the pressure of playing for this club in this division. We have 19 massive games to go and I’m looking forward to the next one.”
Rovers enjoyed a dominant opening and Dack already had an early goal ruled out for offside when the industrious midfielder latched onto Danny Graham’s 28th-minute knockdown to divert his shot beyond Town keeper Chris Neal from close-range to put them ahead.
Later in the half, Blackburn were aggrieved when Dominic Samuel was brought down in the area by Gethin Jones, with referee Andy Woolmer deciding against awarding a penalty.
Having done well to deal with mounting pressure, Fleetwood levelled on 56 minutes when McAleny pounced on Charlie Mulgrew’s poor backpass to round goalkeeper David Raya and slot into an empty net.
From that point on, Uwe Rosler’s Cod Army grew in confidence, with Kyle Dempsey drilling a free-kick under the wall and into Raya’s grasp, while new signing Paddy Madden flashed a snapshot just wide.
However, with just seven minutes of a tight encounter to play, Blackburn epitomised their current unbeaten run of 16 league games when midfielder Smallwood produced a thunderous right-footed drive from the edge of the penalty area to send his side into the automatic promotion places, five points behind leaders Wigan.
Fleetwood assistant manager Rob Kelly said: “I think we upped it generally in the second half. We didn’t get going in the first 45 minutes, they were much better than us and should have been out of sight.
“We hung on in there and it gave ourselves an opportunity. We were better in the secondhalf and we are disappointed to lose the game.
“We are especially disappointed with the winning goal. “Blackburn have very good players for this league and you can’t give them time to play.”