David Dunn grabbed an injury-time winner to give Graeme Souness a glorious
home bow and keep Blackburn's play-off dream alive.
Home-grown midfielder Dunn hit a 20-yard screamer to break Birmingham's brave
resolve and notch his second goal in as many games under Souness.
Just when it looked as if the new manager's first game at Ewood Park would end
in stalemate, up stepped Dunn with a right-foot rocket which threatened to rip
the netting in the 93rd minute.
The game started slowly, with both teams cancelling each other out. Rovers'
danger man Damian Duff was unusually inconspicuous throughout the first half,
while equally little was seen of Birmingham's in-form striker Isaiah Rankin.
The home side did look dangerous when forward Matt Jansen took possession and
it was the former Crystal Palace striker who came closest for Rovers with a
dipping left-foot drive from 30 yards which dropped just over Ian Bennett's
crossbar.
Rovers should have taken the lead in the 29th minute but defender Craig Short
saw his header land on the roof of the net from Keith Gillespie's corner.
The game livened up somewhat in the second half, with Blues keeper Bennett
forced to save twice in the space of two minutes from Jansen.
First the lively striker headed straight at the stopper from Gillespie's
cross, before another long-range effort fell comfortably into his hands.
Next it was the visitors' turn to hold their heads as substitute Marcelo
produced a point-blank save from Alan Kelly and when the ball then struck the
recovering Short, the centre-half was fortunate not to concede an own goal as he
watched the ball bounce just wide of the post.
Rovers had another chance to open the scoring with nine minutes left on the
clock - but Duff's free kick was tame and it looked as if a 0-0 draw was on the
cards.
However, Rovers fans who left the ground early would have been disappointed to
miss Dunn's late show, which kept the rickety Rovers' promotion bandwagon on
track - and made it two games unbeaten for proud Souness.
Teams
Blackburn: Kelly, Dailly, Short, Harkness, Duff,
Frandsen (Davidson 63), Dunn, Flitcroft (Johnson 76),
Gillespie, Ostenstad (Ward 72), Jansen.
Subs Not Used: Broomes, Miller.
Goals: Dunn 90.
Birmingham: Bennett, Rowett, Holdsworth, Purse,
Charlton (M. Johnson 73), Grainger, Hughes, O'Connor,
Lazaridis, Rankin (Ndlovu 73), Adebola (Marcelo 46).
Subs Not Used: Hyde, Poole.
Att: 18,096.
Ref: S Baines (Chesterfield).
E-mail Article 
Print-Friendly
Subscribe to RSS Feed 
Post to del.icio.us
Facebook