MICHAEL O’Neill admitted Blackburn Rovers enjoyed some good fortune after coming out on the right side of a couple of controversial decisions in their 2-1 win against Millwall at The Den on Saturday.
Alex Neil’s Lions were winning 1-0 through Luke Cundle’s goal when Zak Sturge was given a straight red card for for denying Yuki Ohashi a goal-scoring opportunity despite Jake Cooper covering and the Rovers attacker’s first touch taking him away from goal.
The red card changed the game and Mathias Jorgensen scored twice in the last ten minutes to earn the visitors the win.
The referee and linesman also missed what looked like a clear foul on Millwall winger Femi Azeez that could have resulted in a free-kick on the edge of the box or a penalty.
Neil felt the sending-off wasn’t merited as his side’s four-game unbeaten run came to an end and they missed out on going second.
“Sometimes things go in your favour. I’ve felt over the season and even when I’ve been in, we’ve had two apologies for penalties that should’ve been given,” O’Neill said.
“Today we’ll take that decision if it went our way but the important thing was being able to capitalise on it.
“It’s always easier when you have an extra man but you can be impatient in your play. It was important to move it side to side which we did.
“It wasn’t a low block like against Oxford and then sometimes you make erratic, poor decisions. Today, predominantly, we did make the right decisions.”
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It was a third win in seven games for relegation-threatened Rovers under O’Neill.
“We told the players they would have to be up for the fight today and be brave enough to play,” O’Neill said. “Some of the football was excellent and we defended by keeping the ball.
“We stopped an onslaught of longer passes into the box and having to deal with second balls. We could’ve done better with the ball in the final third but the first half was very good.
“When we had the extra man, I thought our play was excellent. Sometimes, it’s not easy. The goals we scored, the movement on that side, Ryan [Alebiosu] and Mori [Ryoya Morishita] were brilliant.”
