Blackburn 1-0 Preston: Rovers net late winner in East Lancashire derby | OneFootball

Blackburn Rovers netted a last-gasp winner to beat local rivals Preston as the visitors missed out on an opportunity to move into the Championship top six.

Yuki Ohashi netted the winner with a superb header in the fourth minute of injury time to send Ewood Park into raptures, after laborious viewing for much of the evening.

The hosts moved six points clear of troubled Leicester City in 23rd while Preston, now with one win in their last seven league games, continued to see their form stalling.

As It Happened

Blackburn made one change to their side ahead of derby day, with Harry Pickering replacing Lewis Miller. Meanwhile, Milutin Osmajic and Andrew Hughes returned to North End’s side replacing Daniel Jebbison and Odel Offiah, who scored an own goal in the side’s 2-2 draw with Watford last time out.

This evening marked new Blackburn boss Michael O’Neill’s first game in charge at Ewood park following his winning start last weekend against Queens Park Rangers. O’Neill is also the manager of Northern Ireland’s international team, with three of his players making the squad for his opponent’s this evening.

From a Preston perspective, this match marked midfielder and captain Ben Whiteman’s 200th Championship appearance.

The visitors made a fast start as they won a corner inside two minutes, which clipped the top of the crossbar.

North End then registered the first shot on target of the game, still in its early stages, as Dobbin danced through the Rovers defence and forced Balazs Toth into a strong save.

Blackburn almost broke the deadlock with half an hour on the clock, as Moussa Baradji headed wide. As the first-half neared it’s end, Rovers won themselves a corner off the back of some strong pressing work, however they couldn’t make it count as it was half-cleared by a defender before Ryoya Morishita fired a volley into the stands.

Toth was once again called into action late into the half following a strike from Tottenham Hotspur loanee Alfie Devine. Just moments later, Blackburn defender Hayden Carter picked up the first booking of the night following a bad tackle, concluding a goalless first 45.

The second-half started much like the first with neither side seeing much in the way of goalmouth action, the only flashpoint of the first 10 minutes came when Hughes’ underhit backpass nearly landed his keeper in trouble as they rushed off their line to clear the ball away.

North End made two changes just before the hour mark as Jamal Lewis and Thierry Small replaced Andrija Vukcevic and Pol Valentin. Small made an instant impact, winning a corner in front of the travelling fans after his shot was blocked, however nothing came of the delivery.

Preston earned themselves another set-piece opportunity just minutes later after Lewis was fouled by Curtis, the resultant free-kick delivery avoided everyone in the middle but kissed the post before going out of play. The home side responded by making their first change of the night which saw Andri Gudjohnsen’s evening come to end and Yuki Ohashie introduced to proceedings.

With 20 minutes left to play, the ball sat up for Baradji to strike on the edge of the area but it sailed narrowly over the bar. Jebbison and Callum Lang promptly replaced Dobbin and Osmajic for the away side moments later, Lang was almost instantly booked for his challenge on Pickering. North End’s final change saw Hughes withdrawn in favour of Offiah.

Somehow the game remained at 0-0 in the 73rd minute despite the ball seemingly rolling across the toes of three different Blackburn attackers in the centre of the penalty area.

Five minutes later they nearly found the opener yet again as Ohashi saw his header well saved by Cornell. In the closing stages of the game, Baradji went down with a calf issue and was subsequently replaced by Kristi Montgomery.

Rovers also brought off Pickering for Oladapo Afolayan as they continued to hunt for a winning goal.

Afolayan almost had an instant impact as the home crowd appealed for a penalty, however the referee waved away the claims without any fuss from the players.

A small break in play followed whilst Cornell received treatment from the medical staff before five minutes of additional time were confirmed by the fourth official.

Eiran Cashin went on to pick up Rovers’ second yellow card of the evening for a challenge on Small. This gave The Lilywhites a chance to swing the ball into the penalty area which caused chaos before the ball was eventually dealt with by Cashin himself, helping to round off a Player Of The Match performance from the defender.

Then came total bedlam in the stands as Ohashi headed home from a Cashin cross with the last chance of the game to secure Rovers’ derby double this season and continue O’Neill’s perfect start as Blackburn head coach. Small was shown a yellow card shortly after, concluding a dramatic end to this East Lancashire Derby.