Stoke City climbed to third in the Championship as Mark Robins' young starlets held on to beat Tony Mowbray's Blackburn Rovers and claim a fourth straight away win.

Rovers were the better side in the first half as they chased a fourth straight home win, but they were stung by Jack McGlynn's outrageous touchline free-kick just before the break.

The hosts then went 2-0 down in the 68th minute when Moussa Baradji freakishly put through his own net.

But Andri Gudjohnsen pulled one back for Rovers from close range on 87 minutes, and then should have had an almost instant equaliser when he headed a second but referee Andrew Kitchen harshly disallowed it, seemingly for a mild push by Gudjohnsen on Potters defender Ben Wilmot.

In a quiet first half, Blackburn had the best two chances when defender Sean McLoughlin and top-scorer Gudjohnsen got in each other's way and the striker's tame header went wide. Hayden Carter then forced a good save out of Stoke keeper Viktor Johansson, but the Potters went ahead with their only on-target effort.

They won a free-kick wide out on the left – and McGlynn cheekily went straight for goal, catching out Balazs Toth with a fierce 35-yarder, which the Hungarian goalkeeper realised too late was going in.

He tried to claw it back from behind the line but referee Kitchen checked the electronic device on his wrist and the goal was rightly awarded.

Ben Johnson volleyed a right-foot effort just wide as Stoke looked the better bet to get a second goal in the early stages of the second half, but, when they did get it, it was the stuff of nightmares for Blackburn.

Toth got down to parry Million Manhoef's effort to his left but Yuri Ribeiro clumsily tried to clear it the wrong way back across his own six yard-box and it cannoned into the back of the net off Baradji.

Rovers finally had hope when Johansson could not hold on to Sam Morsy's shot from range, and Gudjohnsen was first to the rebound. But when the hosts thought they had struck that late leveller through Gudjohnsen's header, it was the referee who had the cruel final word.

After losing two straight games, on the back of Saturday's 4-0 thumping at Swansea City, Blackburn have slipped to 14th but they are at home again this weekend against managerless West Ham United.

The Hammers visit on Saturday afternoon (15:00 GMT) and are expected to have Scott Parker taking charge of his first game following the sacking of Nuno Espirito Santo.

Stoke are on the road again on Saturday lunchtime (12:30 GMT) when they face a tough trip to Fratton Park to play Portsmouth, who are unbeaten in six games and up to 10th in the table.

Blackburn Rovers boss Tony Mowbray told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"Most of the performance was good enough to have won the game. But they were silly goals to have lost.

"I'd been warning them all week that McGlynn's got a wand of a left foot. You've got to cover the goal.

"And having watched it back, the disallowed goal is embarrassing really. The referee gets it hugely wrong.

"We've just got to take it on the chin. What hurts me most is the inconsistency. We had one like that go against us at West Brom."

Stoke City boss Mark Robins told BBC Radio Stoke:

"We made a meal of it. We gave the ball away too easily. We only had bits and pieces until we got the goal.

"Jack McGlynn was the only player on the pitch who might attempt something like that. I saw him move to his left and I did wonder if he might try it, but to execute that was phenomenal.

"The second goal gave us a cushion and we've sent 3,500 Stoke City fans home very happy, but we got away with it.

"It's a hard-fought win but it's a brilliant one – and it should make us grow in confidence and have that belief."