Sunday 21 December 2014 17:58, UK
Blackburn boss Gary Bowyer praised his side's "magnificent" intensity as they overpowered Charlton to seal a comfortable 2-0 win at Ewood Park.
After going nine games unbeaten, Blackburn went into Saturday's Sky Bet Championship game on the back of two straight defeats, but they flew out of the traps and pressed the visitors into mistakes, which brought Jordan Rhodes' first goal after five minutes.
The striker netted again, his ninth of the season, to put Rovers in total command within 20 minutes.
Victory put Blackburn within four points of the play-off places and Bowyer was pleased with how his team responded after back-to-back defeats.
He said: "I'm delighted with the team. We had some negativity in the press this week obviously, with the financial fair play and the fact we have lost two games on the trot. You'd have thought we hadn't won for about 10 seasons the way some people were talking about us, but it made us stick together even stronger and come out fighting.
"Our intensity in our game with and without the ball was magnificent. We never let Charlton settle and we were able to control the game.
"They had some stick in the week and they've responded magnificently. We played some fantastic football in the first half especially. There were some outstanding individual performances, but collectively they should have had more goals first half."
Rovers went ahead when their pressing robbed Charlton of possession and Ben Marshall set up Rhodes to expertly slot home.
His second displayed his fighting qualities to the full as he outmuscled Tal Ben Haim and beat goalkeeper Nick Pope to the ball before poking into an empty net.
The margin victory could have been more, but Bowyer was happy with his two-goal striker's contribution.
"It was a great response from him and the team after last week's performance away at Brentford. Delighted with his goals and we've spoken about starting the game strongly and at last we have done," he said.
"(The first goal) was a great team goal, fantastic pressing from (Shane) Duffy, an excellent pass from Ben Marshall and he finished it magnificently well as he does.
"The disappointment today was Jason Lowe's injury and the fact it wasn't more than two because after our first-half performance we should have been more than two up."
For Charlton, it was a disappointing afternoon during which they contributed to their own downfall.
Manager Bob Peeters certainly felt his side handed victory to their hosts.
He said: "I'm not happy at all. I think we started very badly. We know what they're all about, physical with a lot of presence in the box, but, if you give away the game in the first 15 minutes, you can't do anything about it. Bad day at the office.
"In this game, we never felt like we were going to score a goal. It's normally our strength, our defence and defensive discipline, and that's what we lacked, especially in the first 20 minutes. If you come up against experienced teams with a lot of presence and aggression, you struggle like we did today.
"Normally we don't give away the game. Normally they are tight games and we're hard to beat, but today wasn't our best day."
