Blackburn Rovers manager Jon Dahl Tomasson believes that his team should have been ‘out of sight’ before Sunderland emerged victorious at Ewood Park last night.
The two teams went into the tie locked on 10 points and Rovers started brightly as they looked to gain an early advantage. However, the deadlock was broken in the 28th minute when Ryan Hedges was adjudged to have fouled Black Cats’ winger Jack Clarke in the box, with the 22-year-old tucking away the resulting penalty.
Blackburn drew level only seven minutes later through Harry Leonard, but Sunderland went into the break with a 2-1 lead when Dan Neil scored in first half injury time.
The Lancashire side pushed for an equaliser in the second half, coming close with 20 minutes left to play when Dilan Markanday struck the post, but Clarke put the game to bed with his second of the night in the 78th minute.
Afterwards, Tomasson lamented his team’s missed opportunities, calling the result ‘crazy’. Speaking to BBC Lancashire, the former Danish international said;
“I’m very disappointed with the result. With the chances we created we should have scored at least three or four goals in the first half.
“The way we created some big chances, we should have been out of sight. We played some excellent football. We gave three unnecessary goals away.
“In the second half I thought we started well and dominated and created chances again. It was crazy that we didn’t get a result.
“I hated the result and I hate losing but there was entertaining football and a clear identity and the way we created chances, we just need to be more clinical, but we can’t give goals away in the way that we did.”
Blackburn slip to 12th in the Championship as a result of the defeat and travel to high-flying Ipswich Town on Saturday. Meanwhile, Sunderland move up to fourth with their third successive win and next host Cardiff City at the Stadium of Light.
Writer’s View
Sunderland are a team which are flying as of late and are full of confidence. Blackburn have every right to disappointed with the result, but were made to pay for not taking their chances. The Championship is a tough league and with the quality of the teams around them, those that are the most clinical will be the ones which taste success come May.
Jon Dahl Tomasson will put last night’s result behind him and focus on the upcoming game against Cardiff. There is lots of football still to be played this season and it’s an issue that can be worked on. However, he will be keen to find a solution quickly so that they don’t find themselves with too big a gap to claw back on the teams chasing a play-off place.
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