Resilient Blackburn earn hard-fought point at Derby

Posted Wednesday, September 19, 2018 by PA

Derby were left ruing a series of missed opportunities as they were held to a 0-0 draw by a dogged Blackburn side at Pride Park.

The Rams hit the woodwork through Mason Mount and saw several efforts saved by Rovers goalkeeper David Raya and blocked by desperate defending as the visitors claimed a hard-fought point.

The suspended Tom Lawrence made way for Mason Bennett for the Rams with boss Frank Lampard, £2,000 lighter after accepting a Football Association misconduct charge, also opting to restore David Nugent and Craig Bryson to the starting XI in place of Martyn Waghorn and Tom Huddlestone respectively.

Rovers also made three changes, with Craig Conway, Kasey Palmer and Derrick Williams returning following their 1-1 draw with Aston Villa.

It took 10 minutes for the first effort on either goal, with home winger Florian Jozefzoon heading Bennett’s cross wide and then a minute later Mount crashed a shot narrowly past the post.

At the other end, Bradley Dack had Rovers’ first sighter, toe-poking an effort harmlessly wide after capitalising on a mistake by Bradley Johnson.

Following an event-free 15-minute sojourn with neither side looking particularly threatening, Derby then produced a blistering five-minute spell in which they should have produced the opening goal.

Mount saw a 20-yarder deflected over and, from the resulting corner, Richard Keogh’s fierce drive was blocked. Mount then had another effort diverted wide and the corner kick eventually reached Fikayo Tomori, who tried an audacious overhead that fell into Keogh’s path, but his first-time shot was saved by David Raya.

Rams right-back Jayden Bogle then produced a brilliant surging run into the Rovers box, only to see his stinging drive pushed away by Raya, before the Spanish keeper then gathered Bennett’s effort.

Rovers managed to ride out the storm, before Mount curled a free-kick just off target and then Raya was brought into action again, diving to his right to keep out Bennett’s shot.

The woodwork came to Rovers’ rescue inside five minutes of the second half, when Mount’s stunning free-kick crashed off the bar and away to safety.

After all their pressure, Derby nearly succumbed to a rare Rovers breakaway as Dack was presented with a golden chance of firing the visitors ahead, but with the goal at his mercy he couldn’t get the ball under control and proceeded to fire into the side-netting when it looked easier to score.

Derby keeper Scott Carson was finally called into action on the hour-mark when he got down low to save Adam Armstrong’s daisy-cutter.

As Derby ran out of attacking ideas, Rovers finally became more of a threat and won their first corner after 80 minutes, but after this came to nothing, visiting sub Elliott Bennett had Carson sprawling, with the home keeper relieved to see the effort just flash past his right-hand upright.