Benni denies Boro

An injury time header from Benni McCarthy saved Blackburn as they claimed a 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough.

Late McCarthy goal gives Rovers a point

An injury time header from Benni McCarthy saved Blackburn as they claimed a 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough at Ewood Park. Rovers dominated possession for much of the game, but Boro were always in the match. Both sides struck the woodwork in the opening 45 minutes and the away side saw a goal harshly chalked off for offside as Tuncay Sanli was wrongly flagged after an acrobatic overhead finish. The Teessiders then looked as if they had snatched victory as Afonso Alves lashed an excellent finish home from the edge of the box. Then four-minutes into injury time and unmarked McCarthy rose to head home and seal a share of the spoils for Rovers. Rovers had seized the initiative early on when Carlos Villanueva let fly from outside the penalty area but his shot took a slight deflection and went narrowly wide. Jeremie Aliadiere then smashed a volley against the crossbar from Chris Riggott's hopeful ball forward as the Blackburn defence appealed for offside against the inactive Tuncay. At the other end goalkeeper Ross Turnbull had to save well with his legs from Brett Emerton who burst through on the right of the area in the 11th minute. The home side continued to press forward but Matt Derbyshire bobbled his shot into the ground after Santa Cruz cleverly knocked down Danny Simpson's cross. Santa Cruz should have made the breakthrough Rovers deserved in the 16th minute when he was put through by Stephen Warnock but although his shot beat Turnbull it rebounded back off the far post.

Wrongly ruled out

Against the run of play Tuncay buried an overhead kick past Robinson, making his 300th club career start, but he was wrongly flagged for offside. In the 29th minute Turnbull did well to parry Santa Cruz's powerful header from Villanueva's left-sided corner but in the scramble that followed referee Mike Dean awarded a free-kick to the visitors. Villanueva was then caught in two minds whether to pass or shoot as he ran at the Middlesbrough defence and his delay resulted in him being blocked out. Just before half-time the Chilean was again too slow as he considered when to shoot from Warnock's through-ball into the penalty area and David Wheater got across to tackle. In the second minute of injury time Turnbull had to scramble to claw away Santa Cruz's sliding effort to keep the scores goalless. Less than 30 seconds after the restart Villanueva was in the action again, curling a left-foot shot wide from 30 yards. In the 50th minute Santa Cruz sustained a neck injury after colliding with Emerton as they both tried to reach Villanueva's free-kick at the far post but he was able to continue after lengthy treatment. Another free-kick, this time from Emerton 35 yards out in a central position, picked out Nelsen but he could not make a decent connection from close range. Middlesbrough's first shot of the second half saw Alves cut inside from the right only for his effort to be deflected for a corner. In the 65th minute McCarthy was sent on to replace Derbyshire in attempt to make the breakthrough. But when it finally came in the 74th minute it was the visitors who made it. Alves chased a hopeful ball over the top but beat Ooijer to it, turned the 34-year-old defender and fired past Robinson. But in the fourth minute of injury time South Africa striker McCarthy rose highest at the near post to head home Emerton's corner for the equaliser.

Blackburn Rovers	Team Statistics	Middlesbrough
1	Goals	1
0	1st Half Goals	0
4	Shots on Target	2
7	Shots off Target	2
4	Blocked Shots	3
9	Corners	2
17	Fouls	13
6	Offsides	4
3	Yellow Cards	0
0	Red Cards	0
76.4	Passing Success	61.7
13	Tackles	23
84.6	Tackles Success	56.5
62.7	Possession	37.3
58.3	Territorial Advantage	41.7