Stoke City 2-3 Blackburn: Saido Berahino misses late penalty as Potters' fightback falls short
- Published
Blackburn's Bradley Dack opened the scoring with his sixth goal of the season in all competitions
Saido Berahino missed a stoppage-time penalty as Blackburn Rovers survived a spirited Stoke City comeback to inflict a fourth defeat of the season on Gary Rowett's side.
Berahino, who had earlier scored his first league goal since February 2016, struck the bar from the spot after he had been fouled by Darragh Lenihan.
Rowett said after the game that he "did not want to be critical" of Berahino, but that "if you pick the ball up and you take that responsibility of course your responsibility is to score it".
"We've done so much work in the last three or four weeks on our defending," he told BBC Radio Stoke.
"We actually do it quite well in training, and then as soon as the whistle's blown for some reason we make the same mistakes."
Rovers had led when Bradley Dack was left unchallenged to convert from close range, before Elliott Bennett's long ball beat Stoke's backline and let Danny Graham double the advantage.
The hosts were booed off at the break and Harrison Reed, on loan from Southampton, made it three on his first Blackburn start early in the second half after fine work from Bennett and Graham.
Stoke rallied through Berahino's bundled effort and Tom Ince's close-range finish - but fell short of finding an equaliser despite mustering 17 attempts on goal.
Substitute Peter Crouch had a shot cleared off the line, before Berahino wasted their big chance from the penalty spot in the first minute of time added on.
Rowett's men, relegated from the Premier League last season, are now 18th in the table and have the Championship's joint second worst defensive record, having conceded 16 goals so far.
Blackburn only had four shots on target in the contest but were clinical with their finishing and have moved up to 11th.
Tony Mowbray's side are unbeaten in three having won promotion from League One in May.
Blackburn Rovers manager Tony Mowbray:
"Goals change games and from being 3-0 up and being totally dominant in the game, and really should have been 4-0 up, to clinging on for our lives otherwise it would have been another two dropped point.
"I'm not being critical with them, it is young players knowing how to see games out. I think the first goal, from the crowd being against the team to driving them on and us really feeling as if we were playing against a Premier League side with them cheering the side on.
"It's what we worked so hard for last year and I'm delighted that we got the three points."
