Sammie Szmodics scored the only goal of the game as Blackburn produced one of the narrow football scores of the weekend in the Championship. Sammie Szmodics’ calm first-half goal gave Rovers their fourth straight victory and three more well-earned points against East Yorkshire. Under temporary head coach Andy Dawson, the hosts, who are apparently about to choose Liam Rosenior as their next manager, had seen a brief upswing. However, they never seemed to be able to build on their two-game winning streak and lacked the creativity and mental fortitude to compete with their well-prepared opponents.
Jon Dahl Tomasson, the manager of Blackburn, must have been especially pleased with the way his team rapidly quieted a boisterous crowd at the MKM Stadium. It was immediately clear that Rovers’ primary strategy was to suffocate Hull’s central three midfielders. And when Ben Brereton Diaz chested the superb Scott Wharton’s stretching cross toward an approaching Szmodics, it almost paid off handsomely. The former Colchester playmaker made a clean strike, but goalkeeper Nathan Baxter parried it. Brereton Diaz was then denied by Jean Michael Seri on the follow-up attempt. Two minutes later, Szmodics had greater luck as a result of Wharton’s skillful pass into the right channel, which Blackburn had pointed out as a critical Hull weak spot.
No better example of such was when, after 53 minutes, they lost control in an underdeveloped area. Sam Gallagher featured Brereton Diaz, but Baxter did a good job of smothering him. After Baxter’s intervention, the home team played well, reaching its zenith when Dimitrios Pelkas headed Regan Slater’s right-wing cross over the crossbar. Tyler Morton at the back expertly controlled Blackburn, who neither needed nor wanted to press forward for a moment. Hull was largely defeated long before the final whistle as Blackburn advanced, despite Oscar Estupinan, the game’s top scorer, coming off the substitutes’ bench.
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