Blackburn - 2 Middlesbrough - 2 Graeme Souness can sleep a little easier after Blackburn responded to a week of lambasting by their manager to salvage a point against Middlesbrough.
Souness had described his side's defeat against Aston Villa the previous weekend as their worst-ever display and had called on his players to "stand up and be counted". Markus Babbel took the message to heart, grabbing a desperate injury-time equaliser to allow Rovers to travel to Newcastle tomorrow with a modicum of confidence restored.
"I was always believing there was time, especially in the last five minutes when we were working hard to get the game back," said Babbel. "It was not like against Aston Villa - today we played well and we tried all the time to score a goal."
Souness, who had spent the match gesticulating angrily from the edge of the technical area, steered clear of the post-match press conference. Instead his assistant Tony Parkes was a model of restraint. "I thought it was a fair result," he said. "We've got a point, a lot of teams have drawn and so there's not been a lot of damage done."
Four goals were more than could have been hoped for. Boro had arrived with a reputation for meanness that would have made Scrooge reassess his gameplan, chasing a record-equalling eight clean sheets in the top flight.
That hope went out the window after three minutes, Brett Emerton's corner being met by a firm header from Babbel.
Blackburn were firmly in control in the opening half-hour with only a Michael Ricketts header troubling Brad Friedel. Meanwhile Juninho was being given what 20 years ago would have been the Souness treatment, Garry Flitcroft and Barry Ferguson dumping him on his backside whenever he got the ball.
Referee Alan Wiley then booked Flitcroft, thereby freeing up Juninho to do some damage. In the 31st minute Ricketts skimmed a wicked low pass across the sodden penalty area. No one picked up Juninho and the Brazilian paused for half a heartbeat as Friedel went to ground and dinked the ball over the goalkeeper. The self-assurance drained visibly from Rovers and in the 51st minute they found themselves behind. Juninho ran innocuously at the defence but his low shot managed to evade Friedel's tardy dive.
It seemed all over for Blackburn but in the 90th minute up came Friedel for a last corner, he spread consternation in the Boro defence and though he missed the ball, Babbel ducked in behind him and steered it into the net.
BLACKBURN ROVERS: Friedel; Babbel, Taylor, Todd, Johansson (Mahon 45), Neill, Flitcroft (Tugay 56), Ferguson, Emerton, Yorke (Cole 45), Gallagher. Subs Not Used: Jansen, Enckelman. Booked: Flitcroft, Gallagher. Goals: Babbel 3, 90.
MIDDLESBROUGH: Schwarzer; Davies, Cooper, Southgate, Queudrue, Mendieta, Boateng, Downing, Zenden, Juninho (Greening 73), Ricketts. Subs Not Used: Ehiogu, Riggott, Maccarone, Jones. Booked: Boateng. Goals: Juninho 31, 51.
Referee: A Wiley (Staffordshire).
