Boss John Eustace was delighted for Harry Leonard after he rescued a dramatic 2-2 draw for Blackburn against Sunderland at Ewood Park.
The 21-year-old has endured a frustrating time with injuries but equalised within three minutes of his introduction to stretch Blackburn’s unbeaten home run to three games.
Rovers dominated the first half and deservedly took the lead through Yuki Ohashi’s volley but Sunderland made a mockery of their own first-half display with two second-half goals in quick succession through Chris Rigg’s fourth of the campaign and Wilson Isidor’s sumptuous flick.
Leonard had the last laugh and Eustace said the late chance couldn’t have fallen to ‘a better finisher’.
He said: “Great for Harry. It’s been a difficult moment for him but the way he’s been working on the training ground, he’s getting his minutes in the 23s and really glad, throwing him on at the end, that he’s in the right place at the right time to get the equaliser.
“It’s important we don’t rush Harry and put too much pressure on the young lad. He’s dying to do well for the club but he’s had seven months out through injury and we’ve got to get him playing where he’s feeling free and enjoying his football.
“I’ve certainly seen a big difference in him and with 10 minutes to go it was never in doubt to put Harry on. I was hoping the chance would drop to him and I’m glad it did.
“It couldn’t have dropped to a better finisher. Delighted for him with all the hard work he’s put in.”
Despite seeing Sunderland let the lead slip, and Eliezer Mayenda miss a late chance to win it, boss Regis Le Bris described it as “a good point”.
He said: “It’s not a bad result to be fair against a strong team. It’s not a bad point.
“Probably, the scenario of the game, we can analyse and assess what happened exactly but at the end it’s a good point.
“It was clear during the first half, the level of our team wasn’t the one expected. We were probably at 60-70% of our best potential.
“It was clear during half-time it wasn’t a tactical issue or something like that. It was just a question of our level and we were not at our best level.
“If we wanted to be competitive in the game, we had to raise our standards and we did it.
“It shows we have a good potential and the ability to react but probably today it wasn’t possible to play a more consistent game.
“It was very unstable and it was a positive for our opponent because were still unstable, with many counter attacks both ways and they scored in the end.”
