John Eustace admitted Blackburn probably had some luck along the way as their Championship winless run ended with a 3-0 home victory over Portsmouth that moved them into the play-off spots.
After taking the lead just past the hour mark through substitute Makhtar Gueye’s header, the hosts then doubled the advantage in the 71st minute when a counter-attack finished with Callum Brittain rifling past Nicolas Schmid.
Seconds earlier, Portsmouth, having already seen a penalty appeal from their forward Colby Bishop dismissed not long before the opener, protested in vain that Callum Lang had been fouled in the box by goalkeeper Aynsley Pears as he teed up a Bishop header that was cleared off the line.
Blackburn subsequently wrapped things up via Andreas Weimann’s 76th-minute effort to secure a first win in six league outings and move up from seventh to fifth.
Rovers boss Eustace said: “There was big pressure on the boys tonight to win the game and I was delighted we won.
“I thought Portsmouth really made it difficult and as the first half went on they started to frustrate us a little bit, but we spoke at half-time about keeping your head and just keep doing the things we spoke about and there would be one bit of quality to score the goal, and I think we had that.
“I think the build-up for the (opening) goal was very good, and I don’t think Makhtar needed much persuasion to go on, I think he was pretty peed off that he wasn’t starting! And that’s the reaction we want. I’m delighted for him to score such a wonderful header.
“It could have quite easily been a penalty (before the second goal), for sure. I think over the course of the 46 games you get your luck, you get decisions for and against you. The Championship’s relentless and tonight we were probably a little bit fortunate that we didn’t give the penalty away.
“But it’s about the reaction, and we went and scored another fantastic goal, and we killed it off with a very good third.
“We’ve been on the other end of really poor decisions as well and, as I say, over 46 games I think it levels itself out. Tonight we might have got a bit of a lucky call, but I thought the way we played second half was very good and we deserved to win the game for sure.”
Portsmouth boss John Mousinho expressed his unhappiness over the incident, claiming that referee Farai Hallam had “cost us the game”.
Mousinho said: “You probably saw from my reaction, I knew it was a penalty at the time.
“Pears comes out, Callum Lang gets the ball ahead of him and Pears just takes him out. I can’t understand why it’s not given. I’ve just spoken to the referee there, I’ve had his explanation and I’m not happy with it. Today I thought the case was the referee’s decision did cost us the game.
“The linesman indicated penalty to the referee, and the referee took control of the situation.
“He said it was a coming-together. That’s just a foul. It’s a penalty 100 per cent of the time. I think everyone knows it was, everyone knows it was a mistake, and it’s a double whammy because Blackburn go straight up the other end and score.”
Portsmouth, who went close in the the first half when Bishop looked certain to score but struck the bar, are now second-bottom, a point adrift of safety with a game in hand over the teams above them, after what was their fourth loss in five league matches.
