Blackburn Rovers 2-2 Rotherham United: Eaves earns Millers draw in Championship
- Published
- comments
Arnor Sigurdsson reacted first to a ricochet to score his fifth goal of the season
Tom Eaves' late header earned bottom side Rotherham United a point at out-of-form Blackburn Rovers in an entertaining encounter between the two most porous defences in the Championship.
Striker Eaves celebrated his first start of the season by converting Sebastian Revan's cross as the Millers continued their encouraging form under new manager Leam Richardson by going a third game unbeaten.
Arnor Sigurdsson's eighth-minute strike had opened the scoring as part of a dominant early spell for Blackburn, the Iceland midfielder holding off Dexter Lembikisa to pounce on the ricochet when second-tier top scorer Sammie Szmodics' effort was blocked.
Blackburn would have gone further ahead but for an inspired save from goalkeeper Viktor Johansson to keep out Harry Pickering's low drive and a Szmodics effort which was ruled out for offside.
Sean Morrison, who minutes earlier had bravely blocked Sigurdsson's goal-bound strike and thwarted Semir Telalovic's follow-up attempt, headed in Sam Clucas' first-half centre against the run of play to bring Rotherham level for the first time.
The equaliser gave greater momentum to the visitors, without a win on the road since November 2022, and Ollie Rathbone hit the crossbar against his hometown club with a long-range shot as the half-time whistle approached.
Having survived that scare, Rovers were on course to end their four-match losing run when Szmodics collected James Hill's sublime through ball, glided beyond Johansson and slotted in to give his side the perfect start to the second half.
Szmodics' 16th goal of the season left Rotherham facing a ninth defeat in 10 league visits to Blackburn and a third successive away loss.
Morrison headed Clucas' cross over the crossbar and Eaves spurned a close-range chance created by Sam Nombe's cross before levelling with his second goal of the campaign.
Blackburn are 17th after failing to add to their previous run of five successive wins in home league matches on New Year's Day, standing 11 points above the drop zone and eight from the play-off places.
Rotherham are seven points adrift of safety, gaining ground on the teams above them because of defeats for third-bottom QPR and the two clubs immediately outside of the relegation zone, Huddersfield Town and Birmingham City.
Richardson's side have a trip to Premier League opposition to look forward to when they visit Fulham in the FA Cup third round on Friday, a day before Blackburn host Cambridge United from League One at the same stage of the competition.
Blackburn manager Jon Dahl Tomasson told BBC Radio Lancashire:
"We are disappointed not to win the game. Our performance deserved more.
"We knew we were playing against a team fighting relegation who had just beaten Middlesbrough and drawn against Sunderland. We knew what they were good at: second balls, a chaos moment, set plays, crosses into the box and defending with a low block, which they've been doing really, really well.
"I was quite impressed with the chances we were able to create. We scored two excellent goals.
"We should have done better with the goals we gave away. For the second, we should have prevented the cross when we had two against one on the wing and won the duel when we had two against one in the box."
Rotherham manager Leam Richardson told BBC Radio Sheffield:
"Blackburn have some good players, are very fluent and have been together for a while. It took us a little while to get to grips with our distances. Although I was critical at half-time, we finished the second half as probably the stronger team.
"The team is still building and evolving. We know we need help with more numbers. The way the players have faced the challenge over the Christmas period is commendable.
"Sean Morrison is the only fit centre-half at the club. He's rolled himself out there. He's looked after himself terrifically well over this period, with the age that he is. He probably deserved his goal over the last few performances. We knew we'd be a threat at set plays and had to stay in the game.
"Tom Eaves has been training terrifically well. His professionalism has been top-class. He worked hard enough to score. It's a Tom Eaves goal - right place, right time - and a great ball from Revs."
Test your knowledge of obscure words: Take the ridiculously difficult rare words quiz
How Conan Doyle came to resent his iconic creation: Lucy Worsley explores an extraordinary love-hate relationship
