Blackburn striker Kevin Gallacher brought his club's wayward season back to
life at Stamford Bridge with a second-half winner over Chelsea that had their
fans dreaming of Europe again.
Blackburn arrived in London having taken just four points out of a possible 24
in their last eight games.
After being seen as title contenders around Christmas, they had dropped to
sixth place, with the chasing pack of West Ham, Aston Villa, Derby and Leicester
poised just behind them for the coveted UEFA Cup spot.
At least they had Colin Hendry, Garry Flitcroft and Billy McKinlay back from
suspension and could boast a proud record against the Blues, with this season's
Coca-Cola Cup third round defeat on penalties being the only time they had lost
to Chelsea since the 1988 play-offs.
And they kept that record going as Gallacher struck in the 48th-minute from
short-range following a terrible error by French defender Frank Leboeuf.
Chelsea were well below their imaginative and free-flowing best form yet still
had chances to score late on - with Mark Hughes hitting the outside of the post
with just six minutes left and Leboeuf rattling the woodwork with a thunderous
freekick in the dying seconds.
Blackburn were perhaps lucky to survive by the end yet they had produced a
brave backs-to-the-wall defensive performance in the last half-hour as Chelsea
pressed.
Hendry and Stephane Henchoz were at the heart of only their second clean sheet
in almost three months and centre-forward Chris Sutton was regularly called back
to help out as an emergency defender.
Earlier, they had matched Chelsea in an uninspiring first-half. Gallacher came
the closest to opening the scoring in the opening period when he was put away
through the middle after just two minutes.
The Scottish striker kept looking round, expecting the offside flag to go up,
but when it did not, he gathered the ball, advanced on keeper Kharine and placed
his shot low to the Russian's right only to see him fling himself across to
block the ball.
Chelsea, with Andy Myers and Tore Andre Flo in for Michael Duberry and
Gianfranco Zola, continued to apply pressure and Dan Petrescu headed just too
close to keeper John Filan when Graeme Le Saux found him in space in the penalty
box.
Yet for all Chelsea's possession, Kharine also had to push a shot from Sutton
around the post and then, after the break, Blackburn took the lead.
Winger Damien Duff crossed low from the left but Leboeuf looked to have a
simple job in clearing the ball until he took his eye off it, lost his bearings
and allowed it to slip through his legs.
Gallacher swooped to smash the ball past Kharine from short-range and Leboeuf
was left to hang his head in embarrassment.
Sutton shot narrowly wide soon afterwards but the rest of the match belonged
to Chelsea as they piled forward in search of an equaliser.
Flo saw a shot blocked, keeper Filan produced a flying save to deny Hughes
after a wonderful dummy from substitute Vialli, while Gustavo Poyet wasted a
header.
In the closing stages, Hughes hit the outside of the post as he blasted a shot
from 10 yards that had Filan well beaten, Leboeuf had a penalty appeal turned
down after falling over McKinlay and the Frenchman almost knocked down the
goalposts with his freekick from the edge of the area.
Teams
Chelsea: Kharine, Petrescu (Charvet 57), Leboeuf, Clarke, Poyet,
Hughes, Le Saux, Di Matteo, Myers, Flo (Vialli 57),
Newton (Morris 71).
Subs Not Used: Hitchcock, Nicholls.
Blackburn: Filan, Kenna, Sherwood (Croft 48), Hendry, Gallacher,
Sutton, Flitcroft, McKinlay, Valery, Henchoz, Duff (Broomes 85).
Subs Not Used: Dahlin, Andersson, Williams.
Goals: Gallacher 48.
Att: 33,311
Ref: P E Alcock (Redhill).
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