Blackburn’s perceived lack of firepower sparked pessimistic prospects for the new season among Ewood Park faithful. Fortunately, the children are doing well.
Dilan Markanday, 21, and Harry Leonard, 19, led Jon Dahl Tomasson’s team to an uplifting opening win after summer sales, accelerated by tight budgets, eased the gloom.
Rovers narrowly missed out on the Championship play-offs in May after a season of improvement, but finding the net remained a problem and close range events hardly helped.
But a one-two midway through the first half still grounded West Bromwich Albion, who were unable to build on the momentum of Matt Phillips’ response early in the second half.
It was all too much for their coach Carlos Corberan, who was sent to the stands after a heated argument with the officials too much.
Winger Dilan Markanday put Blackburn ahead against West Brom in the 20th minute
Harry Leonard doubled their lead in the 22nd minute with a shot into the bottom corner
So the outcome instead deepened the sense of unease at The Hawthorns, with their less spotted owner Guochuan Lai apparently no closer to selling the club to allow for new investment.
The Baggies had their moments, but one wonders if they’re realistically going to make the playoffs this time after Corberan turned them around so encouragingly last semester.
Rovers scored just 52 goals to finish with a negative goal difference in last season’s Championship and 18 of those goals were thanks to departing Ben Brereton Diaz and Bradley Dack.
With Sam Gallagher also sidelined and Niall Ennis, a Plymouth summer contract, not fully up to speed, Tomasson wasn’t exactly blessed with attacking options for this season opener.
So he put faith in the youth, handing over Leonard and Markanday starts with support from Sammie Szmodics and Tyrhys Dolan.
Corberan benched Jeremy Sarmiento, their exciting Brighton signing, until the last 20 minutes, but it was his Albion who started with the bigger intention.
Cedric Kipre headed over from Conor Townsend’s deep corner for Phillips, didn’t see too many passing opportunities after an attack on the left, cut in and curled a shot that Aynsley Pears knocked out.
But Baggie’s early optimism dissipated with a double whammy in just over a minute – and they had both goals to themselves.
Townsend was dumped off the ball by Markanday in the run-up to his opener, with Leonard firing the ball through and captain Lewis Travis Markanday slipping through to slide home.
It was a first league goal for Markanday, a product of Tottenham’s academy who scored twice in the Carabao Cup for Rovers last season.
West Brom were in trouble again moments later when Kipre’s terrible pass from defense was intercepted by the lively Szmodics.
He fed Leonard into the penalty area and although the finish at the post looked trickier, he scored past Alex Palmer with confidence.
As the August rain swarmed Lancashire, West Brom desperately scrambled for a route back to the game, with Nathaniel Chalobah drilling wide of the mark.
But Rovers might have made three before the break as Dolan Palmer tested from just outside the area.
After the break, the visitors looked much more forward to the battle. Jayson Molumby saw a goalbound shot blocked by Joe Rankin-Costello, possibly through his arm, after Brandon cut back Thomas-Asante.
Corberan was cautioned by referee Dean Whitestone shortly afterwards, presumably for a disagreement after his side were not penalized for handball.
But they soon cut the shortfall in half. It was Markanday’s turn to take possession of the ball in his own half and the busy Phillips exchanged passes with Jed Wallace and picked up the corner.
Rankin-Costello denied Molumby again, this time with a perfectly tackled tackle into the penalty area.
West Brom winger Matt Phillips pulled a goal back at Ewood Park just after the break
Albion’s storm had calmed down a bit by the time Leonard passed up an excellent chance to wrap things up for Blackburn, firing his shot centimeters wide of the far post as he was sent clear on 68 minutes.
As it did not go in their favour, Corberan was sent to the dressing rooms for another frank exchange of views with the referees.
Rovers should have resolved it late, with clamors for handball after Hayden Carter’s shot bounced wide off what appeared to be Darnell Furlong’s elbow.
And despite a blistering nine minutes of stoppage time, the result of the new EFL time addition guideline, they had done enough.