Valerien Ismael praised his “honest” Blackburn team for staying calm after they brushed off going behind to beat Watford 2-1 and remain in the play-off picture for the final day of the season.
Rovers have hung onto the coattails of the play-off chasers but, despite their recent form, Mattie Pollock’s 47th-minute header threatened to derail their ambitions.
They refused to give up and overwhelmed Watford through a superb Todd Cantwell volley on the hour and Tyrhys Dolan’s seventh of the campaign – a clinical near-post finish – to turn the game around and move them to within one point of sixth.
The win is Blackburn’s fourth in succession and the first time they’ve come from behind to win a game since August.
Ismael lauded his players for not panicking after conceding first, and they go into next weekend knowing a win could result in a play-off berth.
He said: “The performance was right in the second half. We put ourselves in a good position, we’ve got a real chance now. One month ago, it looked completely different, with a lot of problems, injured players – seven key players were not available, we were losing games.
“Now we’ve got the turnaround with another brilliant performance in the second half. We stayed really calm after we conceded the goal.
“Two moments we had in the transition and in our build-up to finish well, were two great goals. We enjoy now the moment. It was our goal to win the game when we knew the result from Coventry and Luton before the kick-off so now it will be very interesting.
“The last couple of games, we made a lot of new situations – we won at Luton which was not the case in 50 years. We came from behind here, we scored four goals in the last home game against Millwall which had not happened this season.
“It’s great to have something really positive. It’s an honest group of players. They are always ready to fight and come back so we are now pushing for something that was unexpected a month ago.”
Watford’s form is the opposite of Blackburn. They’ve lost four on the spin in the Championship for the first time since November 2014.
Tom Cleverley branded the performance as “unacceptable” and said the culture needs to change.
He said: “For me, that was unacceptable. It was way, way short of the demands we put on the players and the standards we’ve set for large parts of the season.
“It was completely below the level in all aspects of the game and, for me, it has significance on how we can all enter the summer and prepare for next season so we ensure we don’t fall short next season.
“We’ve spent 10 weeks in the play-offs this year. Next year we want to spend the last week of the season in the play-offs but performances like that are unacceptable.
“It will be a significant performance because I think it’s clear we need to change quite a lot to make sure that doesn’t replicate.
“Obviously we’ve got some huge players in our team missing, so that’s an instant change. But I’ll start with the culture and environment for sure, which I feel needs to go up a level.”
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