Skip to content

Sky Bet Championship: Gary Bowyer praises Jordan Rhodes after Blackburn win

Gary Bowyer of Blackburn Rovers looks on during the Sky Bet Championship match between Norwich City and Blackburn Rovers at Carrow Road
Image: Gary Bowyer: Hopes Jordan Rhodes' goalscoring touch can return

Blackburn boss Gary Bowyer hopes the match-winning strike from Jordan Rhodes starts a run of goals from the forward after a hard-fought 2-1 win over Fulham got his side's play-off ambitions back on track.

Rhodes, who had not scored since before Christmas in any competition, was on hand to head in a Markus Olsson cross just past the hour which doubled a lead given to Rovers by Ben Marshall, who slotted home after 11 minutes.

The striker's 10th of the season looked to be enough for the home side but Fulham hit back soon after through Ross McCormack.

But they could not force an equaliser and after ending a run of only one win in nine league games with a first victory of 2015, Bowyer said he hopes the deserved victory is the start of a rich vein of goalscoring form for Rhodes.

"Full credit to the players. They showed great confidence to bounce back and thoroughly deserved it in the end," he said.

"It's a Premiership forward line with (Hugo) Rodallega and McCormack so you always know you'll have your hands full but I thought our defenders and goalkeeper did ever so well against the threat.

"At the same time, we showed the threat we have going forward. Ben Marshall took his goal ever so well, (Chris Brown) did an unbelievable job up there and Jordan does what Jordan does very well and we're delighted he put his head onto a wonderful cross from Markus Olsson.

"He's a top striker who scores goal and we're delighted he's got that one now because we expect him to go on a run because that's what happens with him. He gets goals for fun."

The win puts Blackburn within eight points of sixth-place Watford, who they visit next week, and Bowyer believes new loan signing Jay Spearing played a key role in the Fulham win.

He said: "He's got a calmness about him. He'll have the ball under pressure in tight areas, he plays forward. He was captain of Bolton so has leadership skills in him."

Fulham's poor record at Ewood Park continued, as this defeat - a third on the bounce in the league - consigned the Cottagers to an eighth without victory in Blackburn dating back to 2005.

But despite his disappointment at the defeat, manager Kit Symons refused to be too downhearted at what he felt was a good team performance, and he spoke highly about his ambitions for this group of players.

He said: "It's a case of we needed to take our chances. We created quite a few and had some good openings but you need to take them when they come along and that's the way it can be sometimes.

"I'm very disappointed because I said to the players get what you deserve out of the game and I felt we did deserve something out of that game at least so to come away with nothing is disappointing.

"But we put in a good shift and I thought we played some really good football at times and created some good opportunities.

"We've come a long way in a relatively short space of time. This team is progressing and developing all the time. I think there's room for improvement but it's coming.

"I have high ambitions and high hopes for this group of players and I believe in them massively. Today was a tough one to take but it won't dampen what we do and won't dampen my enthusiasm or my belief in this group of players."

Around Sky