Blackburn Rovers picked up a rare home victory against Preston North End on Friday night. The Lilywhites were very poor for the first 80 minutes but the referee had a huge impact on the game which ended 2-1 to Rovers.
Storey a huge loss
There wasn’t much in the game during the first half an hour but an injury to Jordan Storey would prove to be pivotal. With two left footed defenders already in the back three the option of Liam Lindsay as a replacement would have left the defence very unbalanced.
Instead Jack Whatmough came on but he would go on to have a terrible game. The former Wigan defender really struggled to pass the ball. It meant we could no longer try and attack down the right hand side.
He also lost Makhtar Gueye for the opening goal and would go on to concede a penalty in the second half; albeit a very harsh decision.
It showed that Whatmough can only play in the centre of a back three, anywhere else and it is a huge weakness for us. With Jordan Storey potentially out for a few weeks now it leaves the defence in a very vulnerable position. Another defender should be on the shopping list for the summer.
Osmajic a big miss
After everything that went on in this fixture at Deepdale and Milutin Osmajic’s eight game ban that followed, there was always going to be a focus on the Montenegrin for the reverse game. Unfortunately the striker was ill throughout the week and couldn’t even make it off the bench.
Milly has endeared himself to Preston fans with his committed and determined approach. He leaves everything out on the pitch and would be perfect for a derby game. Emil Riis has a very different approach and tends to wait for the chances to come to him rather than creating his own.
He struggled to get into the game on Friday although one great chance did fall his way but he skied it over the bar. The Dane is certainly more effective with a striker alongside him. Osmajic was a big miss.
A 36-year-old coach
With Osmajic not fit enough to feature and Will Keane out injured a rare opportunity fell to player-coach Ched Evans. The 36-year-old had not played at all this season, and has barely been on the pitch in the last 18 months.
He’s only named as a player for an absolute last resort, but it looks like that’s where we were when chasing the game at 2-0 down. Credit to Evans, his presence did massively swing the game in Preston’s favour. He came close to scoring himself and balls into the box were suddenly going North End’s way.
Ultimately though if Evans plays much more this season, then something is wrong with this squad. With other teams in this division turning to the likes of Tom Cannon and Ben Brereton-Diaz to strengthen their squad, and Kelechi Iheanacho and Cameron Archer others to be linked, the fact we have to turn to a 36-year-old who is lucky to still be playing at all after a serious injury two years ago, shows the gulf in class between Preston and others.
Subs made a big difference
Ryan Ledson understandably came into the side after two solid away performances, and he is the type of player you want for a derby clash. As soon as we went a goal down though, you felt we needed a different sort of player to get us up the pitch.
Stefan Thordarson is exactly that player and his balls into the Blackburn box caused a lot of problems at the end of the game. He got the assist for the very impressive Brad Potts and it was also his ball that led to the controversial challenge from Gueye.
Duane Holmes was also very good when he came on with his direct running and quick feet getting him into dangerous areas. It was disappointing that this all came too late and the starting eleven couldn’t begin the game in this manner.
Penalty decisions
Plenty has already been said about the two penalty decisions which effectively decided the game. It’s hard to look at these things without Preston tinted glasses on, but it’s the lack of consistency from referees that is most annoying.
For Blackburn’s penalty Whatmough was just going for a header, and a clash of heads very rarely results in a spot kick. It just wasn’t his day though, with nothing going his way.
In the dying embers of the match Potts was again threatening in the corner of the Blackburn box. He had to deal with the very impressive and tall Gueye who when jumping for the ball managed to elbow Potts in the face leaving him with a bloody lip. Gueye also managed to control the ball with his arm. It could have been two penalties.
For the officials to not notice either of those things is unbelievable but it is sadly a accurate reflection of the officiating in this league. Way off the pace, and they are not held accountable for their wrong decisions.