Blackburn Rovers 4-3 Reading: Sam Gallagher heads in late Rovers winner
- Published
Blackburn surrendered 2-0 and 3-1 leads before eventually coming out on top
Blackburn shook off the disappointment of missing out on the play-offs as they eventually saw off Reading in a seven-goal contest.
Sam Gallagher headed in the winning goal late on after Rovers had taken an early 2-0 lead through Ben Brereton and Adam Armstrong.
An eventful opening quarter saw John Swift reduce the deficit for Reading with a brilliantly struck direct free-kick before Joe Rothwell restored Blackburn's two-goal advantage early in the second half.
Sam Baldock came off the bench for Reading to head one back and then provided the cross for Yakou Meite to nod in an equaliser, but Gallagher won it for Blackburn with a back-post header from Harry Chapman's deep cross.
Blackburn saw their top-six hopes ended after defeat by Millwall on Tuesday but they were out of the blocks quickly with a response.
First Brereton was allowed acres of space to roll in a low finish and then Armstrong netted his 15th league goal of the season with a left-foot strike from just outside the penalty box.
Reading responded well and Swift scored arguably the pick of the goals with a perfect placed free-kick from 30 yards out over the wall and into the bottom left corner.
But they could not claw themselves level before Rothwell hit a left-foot drive from a quickly taken free-kick that took a touch off the head of Reading captain Liam Moore before going in.
Reading once again found some fighting spirit as Baldock headed in at the near post from Jordan Obita's cross and soon after floated a ball to the back post for Meite to head past Christian Walton for his 13th Championship goal of the campaign.
That leveller spurred the visitors on and Michael Olise went close to completing a remarkable comeback only for Walton to make a full-stretch save as he tipped his shot behind for a corner.
But, just as Reading looked the more likely to win it, Blackburn took their next chance.
Substitutes Chapman and Gallagher combined to ensure Rovers collected just their third win in the past 12 games while Reading fell to a second defeat in five days.
Blackburn manager Tony Mowbray told BBC Radio Lancashire: "If I was a neutral, I would've thought it was a great game of football.
"We started amazingly well, got 2-0 up really early and it was looking like it could be three, four, five or six. But they scored a goal out of absolutely nothing and it gave them a bit of belief they could get something.
"It was the same after our third goal. We let them back in and put ourselves under a huge amount of pressure.
"Sometimes we can look good, we can dominate and I thought we played some good attacking football and yet we were scrambling to win it at the end."
Reading manager Mark Bowen told BBC Radio Berkshire: "It really was a game of massive peaks and troughs.
"There were periods where we looked ragged and we looked as if we weren't engaging and the commitment to get up for challenges wasn't there.
"Then all of a sudden, we flicked a switch and we had periods where you think we're back on, controlling our own destiny and we're on top in the game.
"That was the case overall for both teams really. But when you get back to 3-3 with guts and resolution, you think there's only one team to go on and win it, but again we failed to make a key decision at a key time which has ended up costing us the game.
"I bang on all day long that we're seeking consistency and we need to learn to see games out."