Blackburn in promotion hunt with victory over Sheff Utd

Blackburn head coach Jon Dahl Tomasson played down his team’s promotion chances despite an impressive 1-0 win over Sheffield United.

Victory for the Blades would have been a blow to Blackburn’s chances of gate-crashing the top two.

But Rovers put in a performance of energy, discipline and verve to overpower their opponents.

The game was settled by Harry Pickering’s fifth-minute goal, finishing a clinical counter attack involving five players.

Blackburn are now six points behind the Blades, who have played one game fewer, and will fancy their chances when the teams meet in the FA Cup quarter final later this month.

Tomasson insists he remains “ambitious” but downplayed promotion chances.

He said: “I’m extremely pleased with the win, a deserved win. We hit the woodwork twice as well and of course we all know when we play against Sheffield United, with that Premier League experience and difference in budget, we know it’s going to be a tough day at the office.

“But we dealt with the physical part of the game really well. We created some good moments.

“Harry scored an excellent goal. The atmosphere at Ewood Park today was brilliant and we are really going to need our fans for the rest of the games, especially at home. We are delighted with the win.

“We are in an excellent position but we all know we are not favourites to go up and we are not favourites to be around the play-offs. But we will chase it. In this great league, you could lose your next game as well, it’s extremely tough with the intensity, probably the toughest in the world, with all those good teams.

“Will it be a disappointment if we don’t manage it? No. I’m realistic but are we ambitious? Of course we are.”

Sheffield United remain second but will feel both Blackburn and Middlesbrough breathing down their necks.

They have picked up two points on the road in their last four games and manager Paul Heckingbottom admitted his team did not create enough to win even though the data showed otherwise.

He said: “When we came in the analyst showed me the stats – more possession, more chances, more efforts, more on targets, more expected goals.

“That’s why I don’t go into it because for me, we weren’t at our best. We weren’t as fluid, we didn’t play with as much pace and tempo as we normally play.

“First half we passed the ball well on a really tricky pitch. We got into some good areas and lacked the quality in key moments. They had three attempts, and two of them were from counter attacks and corners, and one was from us leaving a runner so at half-time I was confident.

“I thought we’d go on and win the game, and expected us to because it’s easy to put those things right.

“But we came out in the second half and Blackburn started much better than us. We had to make changes, had to try and wrestle the momentum back and we did get back on top in terms of ball and territory.

“Regardless of the stats, I don’t think we created enough good opportunities to win the game.

“We weren’t at our fluent best with the ball but for me it was the energy.”