Blackburn break home duck as late goals down Saints

Andri Gudjohnsen's winner was his first goal in English football

Late goals from Andri Gudjohnsen and Ryan Alebiosu gave Blackburn a much-needed first home win of the season at the expense of Southampton.

Leo Scienza had put Saints in front in the first half, in a game where all three scorers found the net for the first time in English football.

Will Still's side finished the game with 10 men after Welington was sent off for serious foul play in stoppage time.

After bad weather prevented Valerien Ismael's Rovers collecting their first home win of the season while leading 1-0 with 10 minutes to go against Ipswich in September, the relief around Ewood Park at full-time was palpable.

Rovers climb out of the bottom three with this result, up to 21st, and drag their opponents deeper into trouble as Southampton slip to 20th.

Both these sides had suffered 3-1 defeats in the week, and only administration-hit Sheffield Wednesday were below the hosts in the table at kick-off.

Southampton forward Adam Armstrong – yet to score against former employers Rovers in five attempts – combined well with Finn Azaz early on to set up Cameron Archer and it took an important block from Balazs Toth in the home goal to keep the game goalless.

At the other end, Taylor Gardner-Hickman hit the woodwork direct from a corner, and Yuki Ohashi was denied inside the area by a block from Joshua Quarshie.

The opener came from a mistake in the Rovers back-line - a misplaced pass allowed Scienza to intercept possession, and the Brazilian stayed cool to fire home a left-footed opener for his first goal since moving to the south coast from German side Magdeburg in the summer.

Blackburn came out stronger after the break, and Ohashi found another Saints player between him and the net in the form of visiting stopper Alex McCarthy, who was alert to deny the striker from inside the six-yard box.

Ryoya Morishita also wasted a good chance to equalise when he fired wide when one-on-one with McCarthy, while at the other end, Toth denied Armstrong twice, the second time using his feet to divert the ball onto the post.

A frantic final 15 minutes saw Rovers snatch victory from the jaws of another home defeat, starting with right-back Alebiosu, whose first goal in senior football came from a direct cross from the right that evaded everyone and nestled in the corner.

Ten minutes later, Rovers had all three points in their hands as Gudjohnsen fired past McCarthy after the stopper had denied Ryan Hedges from close range.

In finding the net, Gudjohnsen achieved what his father Eidur never could during his professional career, a goal at Ewood Park.

A bad final few minutes for Southampton was made worse when substitute Welington received a red card for elbowing match-winner Gudjohnsen in the centre circle.

'Everyone stepped up in the second half'

Blackburn boss Valerien Ismael told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"It's a great feeling to win at home, I want to give credit to the players for the second-half performance. It was exactly what we wanted - passion, desire, and belief. We came from behind and got the reward, thanks to a great mentality from the players.

"I was not pleased with the first half and I told them that at half-time, because it was not what we wanted or how we had played the last two games. We should have scored earlier in the game.

"Everyone stepped up in the second half and we were back on the level of performance we wanted. It's great for Ryan and Andri to get their first goals, too.

"Today still showed us what we need to improve, we created a lot of chances but we weren't clinical. We want to believe in ourselves, stay calm and focus. But this result will help us to build some confidence."

'We have a lot of things to work on'

Southampton manager Will Still told BBC Radio Solent:

"It was the same story on a different day. We should be 3-0 up, but we make two mistakes, defend poorly, and then concede two really soft goals.

"We shouldn't have been in that situation, we should have been two or three goals up at the stage and we have done everything we could apart from put it in the goal.

"We have a lot of things to work on and a lot of things to get right, and the most important one of those is working on putting the ball in the back of the net.

"I can understand the fans' frustrations, it's how the world works, when you don't win you become under pressure. It's OK for the fans to be annoyed at me if they want to vent their frustrations at anyone."