Saturday 13 September 2014 18:56, UK
Gary Bowyer hailed Ben Marshall's "Premier League technique" after the midfielder's double helped Blackburn beat Wigan 3-1 in an enthralling Sky Bet Championship game at Ewood Park.
Wigan, who missed a penalty in the first half when Ivan Ramis blazed over, took the lead after 51 minutes through James Perch's fine volley, but Blackburn hit back in fine style.
Marshall's precise 25-yard effort found the bottom corner two minutes later before Jordan Rhodes headed his third of the season to round off a frenetic period that saw three goals in the space of five minutes.
The home side could have scored more, with chances for Luke Varney and Marshall, but the midfielder put the game beyond Wigan eight minutes from time with a sublime curling effort that gave Blackburn their second consecutive home win and Bowyer was understandably delighted with his goalscoring midfielder.
He said: "I thought he was outstanding. Technically, for me he's got Premier League technique and I think you saw that. The second one, especially, is an unbelievable finish. But he's capable of that. He's worked hard and he's getting better every game so we're delighted with the progress he's made.
"It's quality finishing. If you see that in the Premier League today, Match of the Day would be drooling over it."
The Blackburn boss praised his team's character for the way they came from behind and was 'disappointed' with the penalty award, as replays suggested Callum McManaman was looking for contact from Alex Baptiste.
"I thought it was a hell of a good game. Two very good teams having a right good go at each other. We're disappointed with the award of the penalty. If you look at it again, you see what happens," he said.
"The way that we responded was good and obviously we were disappointed with the manner of the goal but again the character of them, they're a young team. They are learning all the time and getting better and I think you saw that."
Wigan boss Uwe Rosler was in no doubt that the key moment of the game was the award of the free-kick which led to Rhodes heading Rovers into the lead.
McManaman looked to have been fouled but the referee awarded the free-kick to Blackburn, who made the visitors pay when Craig Conway's testing cross found Rhodes to nod home.
Rosler said: "I don't think we deserved that. I'm sitting here not being really unhappy in general about our performance. Of course there are periods in the game where we lost our control.
"But to sum it up, the decision before the second goal, I'm very, very unhappy with that. I think that turned the game in favour of Blackburn. We have to deal better with that free-kick situation. The game changed through a set piece and against a top team in this division, you have to be more ruthless.
"Blackburn had the margins on their side. When you see the first and third goals, I don't think they will shoot many of them week in, week out.
"The second goal, I'm very unhappy about. I personally felt the opposition bench was unhappy with the penalty situation and was consistently in the ear of the referee and I think the referee being in front of the Blackburn Rovers crowd, made that decision.
"When he watches it back, he will be unhappy with his own decision making in that position. It turned the game definitely."
