Sammie Szmodics was booked for his ‘hand of God’ effort before Blackburn concede a last minute own goal to Preston on Saturday.
Blackburn endured a second heartbreak in four days, the latest coming in injury time as they drew with Preston and fell out of the Championship playoff places.
Dominic Hyam’s late own goal cost Rovers the victory they seemed to be cruising towards after Sammie Szmodics scored with just 10 minutes remaining.
Blackburn’s Sammie Szmodics was handed a yellow card on 59 minutes after guiding the ball into the net with his hand. It was clearly deliberate, but he tried to deceive by running away in celebration, then had the cheek to complain at the decision and acted surprise, as did his fellow teammates and the Blackburn boss was angered.
NO GOAL! “It’s a SHOCKER!”
Szmodics gets the ball into the back of the net…with his hand! pic.twitter.com/j7ryeMFj92
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) April 22, 2023
The Sky Blues keeper Ben Wilson scored his side’s leveller in the fourth minute added time after losing the lead to Coventry at home on Wednesday.
Blackburn are now out of the top six after six consecutive games without a victory. Preston’s hopes to sneak into the playoffs have also been dented by the shared spoils in a match that both teams needed to win.
Jon Dahl Tomasson says his team are hurting after being stung by a late equaliser for the second successive game following the 1-1 draw with Preston.
“It’s disappointment and everybody should be disappointed,” Tomasson reflected to RoversTV following the draw.
“We’re frustrated to not get the three points and to get the win over the line, especially after the lads did an excellent job in a derby game.
“We were in front and we should have seen it out, we should have buried it with a second goal.
“It was a very unnecessary goal to concede. They kicked it long, there was an unfortunate slip.
“It’s cruel, but the way we performed gives me a good feeling, even now. You need results at the end of the day and it hurts when you’re so close to getting the points.
“It’s one point but it’s still up to ourselves and we want to prove everyone wrong, those who don’t believe we can get in the top six,” he added when challenging his players to go into the final three games with a siege mentality.
“When you’re performing like we are, you’re doing something right. Football is cruel but you need a bit of luck as well.
“Football is an extremely cruel game and we’re left extremely frustrated by the result, but we have another game in a couple of days and I know how hard the players have been working for us all season.”
Despite anger at the decision mid-game, the Rovers boss gave genuine praise of the officials come his post-match interview.
He added: “We also need to give credit to the ref, he saw handball today. Last week that cost us two points. Well done to the ref, excellent. Hopefully they can all have the same level. Against Coventry it was not that good.”
Tomasson said that Ryan Hedges was given a great opportunity to secure the three points for their team.
Hedges, when through one on one with the goalkeeper, put in a tame attempt to chip Woodman rather than smash it.
Woodman easily caught the ball and immediately launched a Preston attack, which led to Hyam turning the ball into his own net to cancel out Szmodics’ earlier opener.
Tomasson said as per Lancashire Evening Post: “He needs to bury it. It’s quite simple, isn’t it? That or run to the corner flag. That’s football. Those players are doing their best for Rovers in that way, then we concede a goal that we, of course, should have avoided.
“I think it was well deserved when we went into the lead. We have played a lot of games this season so we need to use everybody to keep the energy in the team.
“It hurts because we know it’s a derby, we know it’s tough, we know the stage of the season and we know how important it is for our fans. Not only because we’re around the players but also because it’s a derby. So that hurts but if you look at how hard they’re working, and how they keep on working, it’s impressive.”
🗣️ Jon Dahl Tomasson’s post-match reaction.#PNEvROV | #Rovers 🔵⚪️ pic.twitter.com/IciOAtbWaQ
— Blackburn Rovers (@Rovers) April 22, 2023
Preston boss Ryan Lowe said: “I thought we deserved a point and we shaded a lot of the first half. We potentially could have scored one or two goals, but didn’t get our shots away quick enough.
“They made a couple of second-half changes and I thought we adapted well to those. I was disappointed with the way we conceded the goal but the lads showed real character to keep going until the end, to give ourselves a shout like we’ve done many times this season.
“I thought the lads were fantastic. We got back late from Swansea on Wednesday night and then the lads were in on Thursday to recover and we had some time to work with them.
The [half time] message was, ‘Can we pass forward a little bit more? Can we show that bit more quality going forward and sustain more attacks?’
“We showed a different side to our game today in terms of going longer to pick up second balls.
“Blackburn left players high and wide, hence we changed our shape to counteract that. The message was that the game is here for us to take, if we show that bit of character and resilience, then we’ll get an opportunity to score, and we did.”
🗣️ “Both teams needed it!”
Ryan Lowe is pleased with the point after Preston scored a last-minute equaliser against Blackburn pic.twitter.com/RiofglRvwK
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) April 22, 2023
This is what fans said as Szmodics is booked for his ‘hand of God’ effort before Blackburn concede a last minute own goal to Preston…
@_OnTheConcourse: The absolute cheek to go off celebrating when you just punched the ball into the net. Grade A weapon #pnefc
@hawksworth62: Should be a red card…. It would have been if a defender stopped the ball. So why not for cheating ?
@JonnyBalshaw: Ban him for rest of the season. Cheat
@PepisaBlue: cheating and then when caught argues against it, as do his teammates. should be a retrospective 3 game ban.
@louise_pne: Cheating get … should have sent him off then he wouldn’t have got the other 🤣
@jshmtn: Why isn’t the law changed so this receives a red card? It’s a match defining and clearly deliberate. It’s not like his arms by his side and he’s leant into the ball to force it over the line; this is cheating in its purest form.
@Ian_Tex_Greer: Do these clowns know that there are eleventy billion cameras recording their every move? Do have the cheek to chase and berate the ref aswell!! Retrospective ban should be given. Cheat.
@MichaelGaut: @EFL you band Matty Godden for apparently diving last season so what are you going to do about this blatant cheating from @Rovers
@bwfc_elliot: Why did he look confused at the decision. Surely being the one that did it means he had a good view of what happened
@bit_preston: Curious: is it only a red if it’s done when defending in the box? As he was only given a yellow here and other handballs around the pitch are often yellow
@seanlewis1986: As soon as he complains and pleads innocence, that’s a red card in my book
@PlayAllTheWay: I have bigger problems with my Team but how can you not run away celebrating but then have the nerve to complain to the ref when it’s been chalked out?! Absolutely shameful behaviour from Szmodics this.
@StaceySellars4: Should be a straight red.
@Langley99Mark: Should be red and 5 match ban come on FA start sanctioning cheats
@TangerineRob: A job on Hollyoaks awaits. 🎭
@ltfckieren: Saw Andy Carroll and wanted to copy. Set a shocking standard that players will try and replicate.
@EllisAshby11: Needs to learn from Ben Wilson
Absolutely shameless 😅 pic.twitter.com/1cxRHypjPx
— G. Pirlo (@GingerPirlo_) April 22, 2023
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