Blackburn 0-1 Stoke: Jacob Brown goal dents Rovers' Championship play-off hopes

Jacob Brown's fourth-minute strike proved the winner for Stoke at Blackburn

Blackburn missed their chance to move into the Championship play-off spots with a 1-0 home defeat by Stoke City.

Jacob Brown's fourth-minute strike proved enough for the Potters, who made it four wins in their last six games.

The striker's calm finish past Thomas Kaminski gave Stoke a dream start and neither side was able to add any further goals.

Blackburn have now won once in their last nine games and have dropped to eighth in the table - two points outside the top six - with three games remaining, while Stoke moved up to 14th in the table on 58 points.

The away side made the dream start when Josh Maja's first-time pass set Brown through on the Blackburn goal, with the striker slotting past Kaminski to score his 13th goal of the season.

Jack Bonham saved well from Ben Brereton Diaz at a tight angle before clawing away a looped header from Sam Gallagher.

Gallagher's curled effort struck the crossbar as time ticked down for the hosts.

Blackburn almost made their hard work pay deep into stoppage time with Bonham somehow keeping out substitute Ryan Hedges' point-blank header, with Brereton Diaz hitting the side-netting with the rebound.

Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"[It was] a game of two halves. I felt first half we didn't get going, we lost an early goal.

"I think the atmosphere in the stadium sort of affected the confidence of some of the young players.

"We needed to change a few things at half-time and I thought we were much, much better [in the] second half.

"I thought we probably deserved to get something from the game and yet as has been in recent weeks, we don't seem to get the breaks."

Stoke City boss Michael O'Neill told BBC Radio Stoke:

"We played some brilliant football, scored a great goal and had some great chances. We should have put the game to bed with some of the chances we had on the counter attack.

"Our attitude to the game was excellent and it was a really good performance."

On Josh Maja and Jacob Brown:

"Josh is an easy player to play with. His awareness and ability to link the play - he works tirelessly for the team as well as Jacob does.

"The two of them were a real handful today.

"We're trying to build a team here and Jacob's a big part of that."