Hull 0-1 Blackburn: Bradley Dack hits winner for Rovers

Blackburn secured their first win since returning to the Sky Bet Championship with a slender 1-0 victory at Hull.

Bradley Dack's solo strike ensured a memorable occasion for Rovers boss Tony Mowbray, who was celebrating his 600th game in the dugout.

The only concern for Mowbray would have been when Dack went down injured before hobbling off just before the hour mark.

The result extends Rovers' fine form, and following promotion from League One last term they have now lost just once in 19 league outings. As for City, they have just one point from their opening three matches and drop into the bottom three.

Rovers came out the blocks with gusto and Dack made his intentions clear early on but sent a header over the crossbar. Adam Armstrong, fresh from a brace in the midweek 5-1 EFL Cup win over Carlisle, also looked a danger but fluffed his lines and poked the ball wide when one-on-one with home goalkeeper David Marshall.

At the other end, Jarrod Bowen came close for Hull but his goal-bound effort was headed away from danger by back-tracking Blackburn skipper Charlie Mulgrew.

Armstrong then unleashed his first shot on target with a routine effort for Marshall before live-wire Dack waltzed through the Hull penalty area only to see his delicate shot kept at bay by the alert stopper.

Midway through the half, there was a nasty clash of heads between Hull's Stephen Kingsley and Blackburn's Kasey Palmer which led to the City defender being substituted.

The stoppage did not deter Rovers, however, and they duly went in front after 43 minutes. A pinpoint centre from Elliott Bennett laid the ball on a plate for Dack, who side-footed a shot past Marshall for his fourth goal of the campaign.

Hull put together some encouraging passages of play following the restart but Jackson Irvine's shot was straight at David Raya after neat build-up.

Just before the hour-mark Dack took a knock and was replaced by Danny Graham. It was testament to Rovers that they continued to create chances minus Dack's creative spark.

They should have doubled the lead in the 70th minute when Marshall tipped Armstrong's shot into Bennett's path only for the winger to inexplicably tap wide with the goal at his mercy.

Sub Graham was proving a handful for the hosts and he saw a header well kept out by the busy Marshall.

Hull rallied late on and sub Nouha Dicko flashed a shot wide before Raya superbly kept out Jordy de Wijs' late header but Blackburn's defence remained resolute as they maintained their unbeaten start to life back in the second tier.

The managers

Nigel Adkins: "We knew it was going to be a challenging fixture for us. We have to give credit to Tony because he's done a really good job at Blackburn. We gave a poor goal away just before half-time and the centre-half must do better with that. We knew we had to be competitive today and we certainly showed that more after the break.

"In the second half we had much more possession, and towards the end their goalkeeper made a great save to keep us out. But we didn't bring the quality to the forefront and we have been showing that, in the first couple of games."

Tony Mowbray: "Bradley is like a kid in the playground - he wants to create, shoot and score and I have to say he is a joy to work with every day. He's a player that when I was at Coventry, he was a tubby kid for Gillingham and yet he was fighting, tackling and scrapping. He stuck in my mind and he's everything that I hoped he would be.

"What you saw today was what we produced in the first two games. We're trying to develop a way that we play and we had the majority of the chances to score. This is never an easy place to come to, especially with them searching for their first league win. In the second half they were gambling going forward and our keeper had to pull off a good late save."

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