Duff drives Blackburn up - March 15, 2001
Damien Duff scored a cracking winner last night as Blackburn pressed home their challenge for automatic promotion to the Premiership.
Rovers lie in third place in the table, level on points with second-placed Bolton and fourth-placed Birmingham, after beating the latter 2-0 at St. Andrew's.
Blackburn soaked up a lot of pressure before taking the lead through Marcus Bent just before half time. But Duff killed off the game within eight minutes of the restart.
The Republic of Ireland senior international has had to work on the defensive side of his game under the Graeme Souness regime, even playing at wing back on occasion.
But his goal last night evoked memories of the confident genius who set the football world alight in Malaysia and Cyprus in 1997 and 1998.
Duff beat one defender and then somehow skipped between two more to leave himself one on one with the 'keeper - and he rounded it off with a confident finish.
Elsewhere in the Nationwide, John Aldridge's Tranmere Rovers gained a 1-1 draw at home to Portsmouth, but it wasn't enough to lift them of the bottom of the table.
The match could mean a recall to the team for Tranmere's Irish u12 international goalkeeper, Joe Murphy, though as first-choice netminder John Achterberg made an horrendous blunder to gift Pompey their equaliser.