Stoke City vs Blackburn Rovers. Sky Bet Championship.
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Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Stoke City and Blackburn Rovers at the bet365 Stadium as two goals from Ki-Jana Hoever and one from Tyrese Campbell helped Alex Neil's Potters to victory on Friday night
Saturday 11 March 2023 07:04, UK
Stoke survived a late onslaught to end Blackburn's five-match winning run and hold on for a 3-2 victory of their own on Friday night.
Jon Dahl Tomasson's men - who had won four in the Championship in succession and one in the FA Cup - were 2-0 down at the break after Ki-Jana Hoever attacked two crosses from the left to score his first two goals in a Potters shirt.
A third from Tyrese Campbell looked to have sealed all three points for Stoke, but Ben Brereton Diaz and Sam Gallagher struck in the closing minutes of the game to make for a tense finale that, ultimately, the hosts came out on top in.
The Potters move up to 13th, nine points outside the top six with 10 games to play, with Blackburn's automatic promotion hopes taking a hammer blow as a result of their first league defeat since January 14.
They stay fourth, nine points off the top two, but having played one game more than all of their closest promotion rivals.
It would have made sense if Blackburn - on a run of five straight wins in all competitions - had flown out of the traps at the bet365 and taken control of the game against a side whose faint play-off hopes appear to be gradually slipping away.
But, in the Championship, proceedings are rarely as cut-and-dried as that. It was Stoke - 5-1 winners away at Sunderland last Saturday - who first marked their territory when Will Smallbone crashed a shot off the crossbar and Stoke who struck first when Hoever brilliantly guided the ball in after being located by Gayle.
With Rovers unable to make in-roads, or even exit their own half at times, the Potters continued in the ascendancy and doubled their lead on 44 minutes when Hoever again rampaged forward on the right to head home a cross, this time provided by captain Josh Laurent.
That goal came within a minute of Smallbone being denied what looked to be a stonewall penalty by referee Matthew Donohue after a trip by Dominic Hyam, while after the goal, Blackburn were denied a spot-kick of their own when Gayle raised his arm to block a Sammie Szmodics shot from the edge of the box.
It looked to be game over with 15 minutes of the 90 to play. Laurent kept the ball alive after a questionably Smallbone free-kick and weaved his way past several Rovers players before pulling the ball across the box where Campbell arrived to slam home.
But Blackburn had other ideas. Brereton Diaz came off the bench to head home his 11th league goal of the season after fellow sub Callum Brittian had hung up a beautiful ball for the Chilean international to attack, and Gallagher then headed in to mount what quickly became a feasible comeback late on.
Stoke, however, did everything in their power to shut up shop thereafter and held on to secure back-to-back wins for the first time since October.
Stoke's Alex Neil:
"We don't want to put a negative on it because, for 80 minutes of the game, we were excellent. The last 10 minutes, when we started changing it up and bringing lads on, we seemed to lose our shape a little bit. We stopped stopping crosses coming into the box and both of their goals came from crosses. Then it starts to become a game at that point and, to be honest, Blackburn didn't have any right to make it a game at that stage because we were comfortable.
"It's food for thought for me. I'm disappointed in the last five or 10 minutes, but until that point, I thought we were excellent. We scored three goals and it could have been more. There were a lot of positives to take."
Blackburn's Jon Dahl Tomasson:
"We are very disappointed with the result, first of all. We knew it was going to be a difficult game, like every away game is in this league. Our first half cost us the game, though we started well in the first 10 minutes and had two opportunities. The second half was more like we are, how we should be. At the end of the day, they deserved to win it, but on the other hand, the players showed good character and they have done an excellent job; in 2023, it's only the second game we've lost.
"We probably could [have had a penalty before half-time]. It's one of those moments that decides games, but we should look at ourselves first of all.
"I've said it from the beginning and we all know we are not favourites to go up. We all know we are not favourites to be around the play-offs, but we will chase it and be extremely ambitious. We want to try to win every game. We will not always be successful, but that's the mindset."
Stoke are back in action at 8pm on Tuesday March 14, when they travel to the Riverside Stadium to take on Middlesbrough, while Blackburn return the following night at 7.45pm, when they host Reading at Ewood Park.
Both matches will be available to watch live across Sky Sports.
