Bristol City 1-1 Blackburn Rovers: Ben Brereton Diaz strikes to deny Robins a rare win

Ben Brereton-Diaz - who played in Chile's World Cup qualifying win in Paraguay earlier this week - has scored four goals in his past four Championship appearances

Ben Brereton-Diaz scored his 16th goal of the season to deny struggling Bristol City a second win in seven games as they drew with Blackburn Rovers.

Callum O'Dowda gave Nigel Pearson's side a deserved lead after dominating the first half as the Irishman's effort deflected off Scott Wharton and looped over Thomas Kaminski.

Rovers, who struggled to create chances in the first hour of the game, began to come into life and were rewarded when the Chile international rifled in from a tight angle after City failed to clear a cross.

City almost won it inside the final six minutes when Nahki Wells had a header well saved by Kaminski.

The point keeps the hosts in 18th place in the Championship, five points off the relegation places, while Rovers drop a place to eighth, two points outside the play-off spots.

City boss Nigel Pearson returned to the dugout after recovering from an illness related to Covid-19 and made three changes to his side as he handed Ayman Benarous a first City start.

The hosts would have been ahead after five minutes had Kaminski not made an excellent save after Alex Scott's free-kick deflected off Wharton while Tariq Bakinson had a couple of efforts deflected off target and Andreas Weimann missed a close-range effort.

Brereton-Diaz had a goal disallowed for offside three minutes after his team had gone behind before they were struck a major blow when Blackburn's Leeds United loanee Ian Poveda was carried off on a stretcher with a nasty-looking leg injury shortly before the break.

Blackburn finally had an effort of note shortly before an hour when John Buckley curled wide before Reda Khadra had a shot blocked by Nathan Baker.

Rovers continued to grow into the game and were rewarded when their Stoke-on-Trent-born Chilean forward equalised after Tomas Kalas weakly cleared John Buckley's cross.

Joe Rothwell fired across the face of the City goal after Liverpool loanee Leighton Clarkson had whipped in a cross with 10 minutes left while Wells was left disappointed after his header was palmed over following a nice cross by Han-Noah Massengo.

Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson told BBC Radio Bristol:

"A game which we dominated very much in the first half, and even for their greater possession in the second half - there's a couple of flashes across the goal - there weren't too many clear chances for them.

"We finished the game relatively strongly so it's a frustration for us today.

"To create chances in the first half to go ahead and still not end up on the winning side remains a frustration, but the response was there and I have to recognise that as being a step in the right direction."

Blackburn Rovers manager Tony Mowbray told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"We struggled first half. We didn't really get to the levels that we needed to be at and I was toying with the idea of putting [Daniel] Ayala on after 20 minutes because we were struggling with their directness and their long throws and their free-kicks coming into the box.

"Yet I wanted to give the team that performed so well against Sheffield United an opportunity to see if they could do it again, and ultimately it was their physicality that caught us out a little bit and Daniel put that fire out for us. He headed so many balls out of the box and gave us a platform in the second half to go and be aggressive and ask more questions of them.

"We at least deserved a point. They had dangers from all those throw-ins and the directness of their team, but in the second half particularly we carried a threat and we felt as if their box was under more threat than us.

"We have to take the point and follow it up with a victory on Wednesday [at home to Peterborough] if we can."