GRAHAM BRACE JUST SICKENING
WALSALL must be sick of the sight of Danny Graham – as for the striker himself, he’s just sick.
In a ‘sick’ run of form as the modern parlance has it – but also in the physical variety.
Graham’s brace here – his second double in the space of a month against Walsall – made it nine goals in 11 league games to keep Rovers top of the pile.
Both he and Elliott Bennett played through a sickness bug that had side-lined playmaker Bradley Dack.
And after Walsall pulled a goal back on the stroke of halftime, boss Tony Mowbray didn’t turn the dressing room red – his players turned it a shade of yellow.
“We lacked a bit of energy in the second half and I could find an excuse and say it was because we had two players vomiting continuously for the full 15 minutes at half-time,” said the Scot.
“But we got the job done. We had to get on with it and it’s credit to everybody that we’ve got the result. I have to be pleased with all the players for different reasons.
“First half, with the energy, drive and quality we showed and the second half because they had to dig in when the team was under the weather.”
Blackburn bossed the first half and Graham tucked home a close-range 17th-minute opener after Adam Armstrong had done superbly to keep Elliott Bennett’s over-hit cross in play.
Rovers had a slight scare soon after as Darragh Lenihan cleared George Dobson’s 18yard strike off the line.
But Graham made it 2-0 on 26 minutes, stooping to head home from close range after Jack Payne intelligently nodded down a Bennett centre.
Rovers could have been out of sight but Graham flicked a hattrick chance wide from another Bennett cross and Armstrong flashed a rocket onto the bar.
Walsall pulled one back right on half-time as Rovers keeper David Raya flapped at a corner and Jack Fitzwater hooked home from Joe Edwards’ return ball in.
Raya made up for that error to preserve the points for a jaded Rovers in the second half.
He tipped over Erhun Oztumer’s 25-yard free-kick and made a fine one-on-one save to deny substitute Julien Ngoy.
Walsall were unable to turn their pressure into more chances but boss Jon Whitney was proud despite remaining five points above the drop.
“We have to take positives from that second half,” he said.
“Because I thought we outplayed and outbattled a team who I think are the best team in the league.
“It would have been great if we could have got that equaliser but we’ve got to move forward with some confidence and use that as a bit of a benchmark.
“I think we were a bit unfortunate not to get an equaliser. Graham probably made the difference between the two teams here.”
Rovers maintain their onepoint lead atop the table.
WALSALL: (4-4-1-1): Roberts L 6, Devlin 7, Fitzwater 7, Guthrie 7, Leahy 6, Morris 6, Dobson 7, Chambers 6, Edwards 6 (Kouhyar 67 6), Oztumer 6, Shaibu 5 (Ngoy 64 6) Subs not used: Gillespie, Roberts K, Kinsella, Flanagan, Cuvelier
BLACKBURN: (4-2-3-1): Raya 7, Nyambe 6, Lenihan 7, Mulgrew 7, Williams 7, Evans 7 (Antonsson 67 6), Smallwood 6, Bennett 8, Payne 7 (Bell 79 5), Armstrong 7, Graham 8 (Samuel 62 5) Subs not used: Leutwiler, Downing, Caddis, Nuttall