Middlesbrough climbed up to fifth in the Championship with a 2-0 win over beleaguered Blackburn that piled pressure on Valerien Ismael and the club’s hierarchy at a febrile Ewood Park.
Against a backdrop of angry fan protests against the Venky’s Group that has owned Rovers since 2010, Boro struck twice in the opening eight minutes to take control.
Tommy Conway needed less than 90 seconds to beat Aynsley Pears with a fine opener before a deflected strike from Samuel Iling-Junior swiftly followed.
A fifth win in seven lifted Boro above both West Brom and Coventry and into the play-off places before the rest of the weekend’s fixtures, but Blackburn suffered a fifth straight league defeat for the first time since February 2021, with Ismael yet to win in six since replacing John Eustace on February 25.
Blackburn’s first home game since a supporters’ group called for Rovers chief executive Steve Waggott, head of football operations Rudy Gestede and chief operating officer Suhail Pasha to stay away from Ewood Park – a request rejected – was played amid sustained chanting against the club’s ownership.
The mood only darkened when Boro took the lead before Blackburn had barely registered a touch.
Conway took his 12th goal of the season superbly, receiving Kelechi Iheanacho’s pass with his back to goal outside the area and deftly flicking it around Joe Rankin-Costello before firing beyond the helpless Pears.
Six minutes later, it was 2-0. Iheanacho again got the assist, laying the ball off for Iling-Junior on the edge of the box. Danny Batth tried to head it to safety but instead only deflected it beyond Pears in front of the most vocal Blackburn supporters.
Boro looked sharper and faster against a Blackburn side who failed to test Mark Travers in the first half, and it could and should have been three on the quarter-hour mark, with Iheanacho somehow shooting wide after being slipped in by Delano Burgzorg.
The frustration in the stands was spilling on to the pitch. Makhtar Gueye saw yellow for a nasty challenge on Aidan Morris in the 24th minute, and moments later escaped further action after catching Neto Borges with a raised arm, with Borges soon limping off after landing awkwardly in the incident.
Gueye was replaced by Yuki Ohashi at the break and Blackburn started the second half brightly, with Todd Cantwell narrowly missing the target in the 54th minute.
Blackburn were certainly better but the chances kept coming Boro’s way. A poor pass from Pears was cut out by Iheanacho before Morris’ powerful shot was blocked, and only a poor cross from Burgzorg denied Conway a tap in after they broke in numbers.
Bad decision making and poor finishing from Boro in the final third was keeping Blackburn alive.
Ohashi had late chances for Rovers, testing Travers at his near post with a powerful shot before bringing another save out of the Boro keeper with a powerful strike in the dying minutes, but it ended in a defeat that left yet more questions on and off the pitch for those in charge at Ewood Park.
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