Blackburn Rovers handed starts to two new signings, with striker Roque Santa Cruz returning to his former club and midfielder http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ryan-Nelsen-c31992 missed out due to a
knee injury. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jonas-c18967 Olsson returned to the West Bromwich Albion team after a three-month layoff owing to injury; he replaced Paul Scharner in defence with the Austrian moving into midfield in place of the injured Graham Dorrans.
Rovers had won five of their 11 home games this season in the league. Roque Santa Cruz said before the game that he wanted to finish his career at Ewood Park. There was real sense of anticipation
at Ewood Park on a cold Sunday evening with the second coming of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Roque-Santa-Cruz-c31778.
West Bromwich Albion were quick out of blocks and it was sloppy play from Blackburn which allowed http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Peter-Odemwingie-c29794 to break free, but his snapshot from outside the box was saved well by Paul
Robinson.
Kalinic was the hero when Blackburn won at The Hawthorns in December . With his brace, he nearly got the hosts noses in front when he twisted and turned on edge of the West Brom box before firing
wide.
James Morrison's through-ball was wasted by West Brom's top scorer , Odemwingie. The match was played with frenetic pace with referee Mark Clattenburg's fitness being tested to the full.
Paul Robinson made a error of judgement as he came to collect a Jerome Thomas cross, only for http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Paul-Scharner-c29393 to steal the ball from his toes to set up Thomas, who had raced into the box. He tried
to nutmeg Robinson, but the former http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/England-c749 goal-keeper managed to get his thigh in the way to prevent danger.
West Brom had gone 20 matches without a clean sheet - but they looked fairly comfortable so far. Rovers centre back Gael
Givet looked like a professional climber.
It was a determined effort from young Canadian attacker http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/David-Hoilett-c10503, which saw him galloping towards the West Brom by-line, but he couldn’t manage to cut-back for any of his team-mates. The
hosts built some pressure on away team as they whipped some dangerous ball over.
Two top quality saves from Boaz Myhill, firstly, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Martin-Olsson-c24423 cracked a low shot through the crowd, which he tipped away to safety. Almost four seconds later, giant Chris Samba then slammed
in another skimming drive but the Baggies keeper lobbed an athletic arm at it and to clear the danger.
Six inches to the right and Blackburn http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chris-c9006 Samba, would have opened the scoring. A low shot skimmed just wide with Myhill a spectator after a deft lay-off from less-rusty Santa Cruz.
A long diagonal pass was taken down well by Jerome Thomas but, after skipping past slipping 35-year-old former Real Madrid full-back Salgado, his inventive shot was deflected just wide by Samba
with Robinson at full stretch just in case.
It was an absolute peach of a header from Tamas, leaping high to nod into the top corner from David Dunn's dangerous cross. But Tamas played for West Brom and put the ball in his own net. It
was nightmare for the tall defender who duly looked haunted.
West Brom defence was visibly shell shocked and Rovers nearly nicked an instant second as Santa Cruz allowed a smart Hoilett pass run across his body to test Myhill with a snappy left-foot shot
from close range.
Half Time:
Blackburn http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Rovers-c40385 1 West Bromwich Albion 0
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