Blackburn Rovers vs Stoke City. Sky Bet Championship.
Ewood ParkAttendance13,371.
Report and highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Blackburn Rovers and Stoke City at Ewood Park as Lewis Baker scored the winner for the Potters in front of incoming new boss Alex Neil.
Saturday 27 August 2022 18:46, UK
Lewis Baker's long-range strike gave Stoke City a hard-fought 1-0 win at Blackburn in front of their rumoured new manager Alex Neil.
Stoke's captain Baker settled the contest in the 27th minute with a 25-yard strike of unerring accuracy that arrowed into the bottom corner for his second goal this term.
Neil will have enjoyed the first half which the Potters dominated and they would have been out of sight at the break but for Thomas Kaminski producing superb saves to deny Baker and Aden Flint.
For all that dominance, the visitors had to dig in and grind out a result in a second half dominated by Jon Dahl Tomasson's men, whose best chance fell to Bradley Dack, but his volley was blocked by the Stoke defence.
That grit and determination will arguably please Neil more, as they weathered an increasing Rovers storm to register their first win and clean sheet on the road this season.
Defeat means Blackburn have now lost three successive league games without scoring.
Dack made his first league start of the season for Rovers, while Stoke made five alterations from the Sunderland defeat that cost Michael O'Neill his job.
Stoke dominated the first half and would have taken the lead after Dwight Gayle intercepted Kaminski's sloppy pass and supplied Liam Delap but a combination of the goalkeeper and frantic defending denied him.
Kaminski then produced two superb 11th-minute saves as he first clawed Baker's curling free-kick behind. From the resulting corner, Gayle's cushioned pass found Flint, whose bullet header was parried by the Rovers stopper.
Jacob Brown's low drive was deflected wide soon after and Sam Clucas blazed over after a loose Ben Brereton Diaz touch played him in.
The Potters took a deserved 27th-minute lead through Baker, who let fly with a powerful 25-yard drive that flew into the bottom corner past the despairing Kaminski who would have expected to keep the ball out.
Blackburn's only first-half chance came when Dack attempted to lift the ball over Jack Bonham, who stood tall to divert wide.
But the hosts returned after the restart with a more aggressive approach which saw Brereton Diaz drag wide and, on the hour, he laid the ball into the path of Dack, whose ferocious volley was heroically blocked by the Stoke defence from 12 yards.
Rovers thought they should have had a penalty when their Chilean forward went down after a Ben Wilmot challenge, and their frustrations were intensified when both Brereton Diaz and Tyrhys Dolan curled over as the game became Blackburn's attack against Stoke's defence.
Substitute Ryan Hedges struck the side netting in the dying minutes but Stoke held out to record an impressive win.
Blackburn's Jon Dahl Tomasson: "We're disappointed with the result. The performance, I think we should be getting more if you see the performance. It can be difficult when a club is changing manager and we didn't play a good game in the first half. Our decision making and our intensity, we were a bit passive in that way. We made bad decisions on the ball and off the ball. Stoke got opportunities, but not a lot. The boys were disappointed with the first half.
"The second half was an excellent half. We created opportunities, shots were blocked, we got the fans with us, a lot of intensity and good football. The only thing lacking was a goal so we need to learn from that. We need to start better. I've told them that. We need to start in minute one. Even if you don't know exactly which formation the opponents will use, the boys were prepared for three different formations so it shouldn't be an issue. It was not good enough."
Stoke's interim manager Dean Holden: "There's the basis of a really good team. They've not shown it enough, particularly this season. Just disappointed for him that he's not been able to see it through because you can see today the quality we've got. First half, we knew that Blackburn play, they've got a nice style of football, we knew we could catch them high up the pitch, which we did countless times. Probably should have come in at 2-0 really.
"We knew they'd throw everything at us, second half. Jack (Bonham) had one save to make, in the first half, and it was a good save. Other than that, there were a load of blocks, but Jack didn't have a lot to do. The new manager coming in is going to have a really good group of players and more importantly, a really good group of staff to push this club where it needs to get to. We showed what a good team we could be first half with the ball, and in the second half, we defended resolutely."
