Blackburn Rovers 1-0 Sheffield United: Harry Pickering's early goal sees Jon Dahl Tomasson's men past stumbling Blades

Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Blackburn Rovers and Sheffield United at Ewood Park as Harry Pickering's fifth-minute strike saw Jon Dahl Tomasson's men past the stumbling Blades

Dan Long

Digital football journalist @DanLong__

Saturday 4 March 2023 17:21, UK

Blackburn re-established themselves as automatic promotion contenders with a deserved 1-0 win over Sheffield United at Ewood Park.

The only goal of the game came inside five minutes, when Harry Pickering finished off a devastating counter-attack from the hosts, who were later twice denied by the woodwork.

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As the second half wore on, the visitors' frustration grew and Blades defender Chris Basham was fortunate to remain on the pitch after avoiding a second booking despite a studs-up tackle on Pickering.

But fourth-placed Rovers took all three points after their fourth straight league win and moved six points behind second-placed Sheffield United with 11 games to play.

How Blackburn reignited their top two hopes

Speaking in the lead-up to kick off, Blades manager Paul Heckingbottom had warned he was "expecting problems" from Rovers at Ewood Park, given their run of four straight wins in all competitions, but that he was expecting his side to solve them.

He was proved right within five minutes of the first whistle. Sammie Szmodics led an energetic counter and picked out Tyrhys Dolan, who held the ball up and waited for the overlapping run of Pickering, who arrived on the scene to strike across Wes Foderingham and into the far corner.

The Blades responded well to going behind and certainly had the more fluency to their game, yet they struggled to force meaningful openings; Aynsley Pears saved an unorthodox clearance from Dominic Hyam at his near post, while Basham weaved his way past two men impressively, before disappointing with the subsequent shot.

It was Blackburn who nearly claimed the second goal of the game, though, when Sorba Thomas chased a lost cause down the right and pulled it back for Dolan to smash an unstoppable drive off the right-hand upright.

The woodwork denied them again just after the hour, too, when Szmodics audaciously dinked a shot goalwards from 20 yards, which beat Foderingham before cannoning off the crossbar.

Tensions threatened to boil over in the final 25 minutes of the match, with four yellow cards doled out. But there perhaps should have been a second shown to Basham, who escaped with a yellow for a crunching tackle on Dolan and then avoided a second altogether despite an ugly challenge on Pickering.

Ultimately, the fact it was 11 vs 11 for the final chapter mattered little, in truth. Sheffield United rarely troubled their hosts in the final third and so, despite a late onslaught in the very last seconds, they could not find a way to avoid a third defeat in four league games.

Player of the match - Lewis Travis

The managers

Blackburn's Jon Dahl Tomasson:

"I'm extremely pleased with the win, a deserved win. We hit the woodwork twice as well and of course we all know when we play against Sheffield United, with that Premier League experience and difference in budget, we know it's going to be a tough day at the office. But we dealt with the physical part of the game really well. We created some good moments.

"Harry scored an excellent goal. The atmosphere at Ewood Park today was brilliant and we are really going to need our fans for the rest of the games, especially at home. We are delighted with the win. We are in an excellent position but we all know we are not favourites to go up and we are not favourites to be around the play-offs. But we will chase it. In this great league, you could lose your next game as well, it's extremely tough with the intensity, probably the toughest in the world, with all those good teams. Will it be a disappointment if we don't manage it? No. I'm realistic but are we ambitious? Of course we are."

Sheffield United's Paul Heckingbottom:

"When we came in the analyst showed me the stats - more possession, more chances, more efforts, more on targets, more expected goals. That's why I don't go into it because for me, we weren't at our best. We weren't as fluid, we didn't play with as much pace and tempo as we normally play. First half we passed the ball well on a really tricky pitch. We got into some good areas and lacked the quality in key moments.

"They had three attempts, and two of them were from counter attacks and corners, and one was from us leaving a runner so at half-time I was confident. I thought we'd go on and win the game, and expected us to because it's easy to put those things right. But we came out in the second half and Blackburn started much better than us. We had to make changes, had to try and wrestle the momentum back and we did get back on top in terms of ball and territory. Regardless of the stats, I don't think we created enough good opportunities to win the game. We weren't at our fluent best with the ball but for me it was the energy."