Blackburn Rovers 3-1 Stoke City - Tyrhys Dolan double helps Rovers end bad run against Potters
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Tyrhys Dolan doubled his season's haul of goals to four
Blackburn Rovers won their first game since the departure of boss Jon Dahl Tomasson as they earned a timely first league victory in two months.
With newly appointed Rovers boss John Eustace sat watching in the main stand, and first-team coaches Damien Johnson and David Lowe in charge, the hosts scored thee times in the first 37 minutes.
Tyrhys Dolan got the first and the third, either side of Championship top scorer Sammie Szmodics scoring his 17th goal of the season.
Stoke new boy Niall Ennis, signed from Blackburn late on deadline day, got his first goal of the season two minutes later.
It might have proved a different story for Stoke if they then converted a 49th-minute penalty, but Aynsley Pears saved Daniel Johnson's spot-kick.
Instead, Steven Schumacher's Potters suffered a fourth successive defeat, at the cost of 15 goals conceded, to plunge within three points of the Championship relegation zone.
Despite making eight changes, Stoke were woeful as they lost the game in little more than half an hour.
Callum Brittain swung over a first-time cross and Dolan slotted home from six yards at the far post, before Sam Gallagher went close to doubling the lead but shot just wide.
Stoke failed to learn their lesson and, on 20 minutes, when Brittain was again given time to superbly cross and Ryan Hedges nodded across goal for Szmodics to send his header into the roof of the net.
Rovers then scored a simple third when a long ball was flicked on by Gallagher, sending Dolan racing clear on the right with just Daniel Iversen to beat and he buried his shot into the left corner.
Stoke had hope two minutes later when Bae Jun-ho's flick-on found Ennis, who showed excellent composure to step inside and find the left corner.
But, when Brittain hauled down Andre Vidigal in the area, Pears guessed the right way and saved Johnson's penalty.
Ben Wilmot also had a chance, shooting straight at Pears but, having leaked 21 goals in their previous eight matches, Blackburn displayed the defensive solidity that has been missing to see the game out.
Who's next?
Having watched Blackburn beat one of his former clubs, new boss John Eustace now comes in for an intriguing first game in charge against another on Tuesday when Rovers face Birmingham City at St Andrew's.
That will be four months on from Eustace's last game there, a 3-1 win over West Bromwich Albion which took Blues fifth before he was surprisingly sacked as City boss three days later.
With fellow former Blues employee Damien Johnson also involved, Rovers will start the evening in 17th, two places and four points better off than their hosts, who are now 19th.
Stoke, a place behind in 20th having now won just twice in 17 games and are now only three points clear of the drop zone, play their next game the following night at home to QPR, who are 22nd.
If Rangers win, Stoke would be in the bottom three, if Huddersfield get just a point at home to Sunderland.
Blackburn Rovers first-team coach Damien Johnson:
"I'm not going to lie. It feels good. It's been a difficult couple of days. Great credit to the players. It's not easy for them but they were outstanding.
"Their concentration, their application, how they went about it, the togetherness they showed was superb.
"They did lots of good things. We knew that we'd find space on transition so there was an element of allowing Stoke to come onto us.
"At times we could have looked after the ball better but when you've had a run of results like this, the important thing is you get three points."
Stoke City boss Steven Schumacher:
"If you give a Championship team a 3-0 head start, then you're doomed, because they don't really have to do anything else.
"That's kind of what we did. We didn't start well enough. They scored goals that were too easy to score and we gave ourselves a mountain to climb.
"From the third goal onwards, we looked better. We looked like a team. We were positive, we passed the ball forwards which we didn't do before, and we won some tackles and some duels which is the bare minimum.
"We've got to show a bit more character, a bit more belief, a bit more bravery. More importantly, we've got to show a bit more fight."