Set-piece work pays dividends for Rovers
Blackburn Rovers manager Tony Mowbray believes his side executed his game plan perfectly as they condemned Leeds United to their first away defeat of the season with a victory at Ewood Park.
Although not full of giltedged chances, the game was end-to-end and high intensity, with Rovers bursting out of the traps with a Danny Graham header – his fourth goal this term – after just three minutes.
Leeds were able to hang in and grabbed a well-worked equaliser in first-half injurytime through Polish midfielder Mateusz Klich’s close-range finish.
It felt like a turning point, but Blackburn recovered and Darragh Lenihan’s downward header 20 minutes from time sent the home fans wild.
After ending a run of three games without a win at home, Mowbray talked about the importance of preparation, and how his team made that count to hurt Leeds.
He said: “We’d had an international break to prepare. It gives the staff a good chance to study the opposition when you’ve got two weeks to watch five or six full games, try to pick their weaknesses and strengths.
“You come up with a game plan and we had two days to put it together. I’m just so pleased for the players, really.
“The set-plays are something we worked really hard on.
“Pontus Jansson is a monster of a man and Liam Cooper is dominant, but you take those two out of the box, we felt they were vulnerable.
“Whoever was getting marked by those two played wide; for the first goal Graham came powering through the middle and scored. For the second, Lenihan did the same.
“But we had to dig in. They’re a great team, with wonderful footballers and a world-class coach who has got them playing attractive football.”
Leeds head coach Marcelo Bielsa felt a draw was a fairer result, but was critical of his side’s defending. United, who lost at Blackburn for the first time since November 2014, have now won only one of their past five games.
Bielsa said: “We needed to win this game, especially after the draw in the last home game.
“We didn’t defend as well as we used to do. The offensive players created difficulties for our defence. We could have avoided the goals they scored.
“What we can say is that we lost against a rival that is not better than us. A draw would have better reflected what happened. With the last draw and this loss, we are in a bad moment right now.”