West Brom 0 Blackburn 2

Last updated : 30 September 2002 By Footymad Previewer

Damien Duff made an impressive return to action as he inspired Blackburn Rovers to victory over West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns.

The Republic of Ireland international winger had missed the previous four games with a thigh strain, but made up for lost time by securing the penalty from which Dwight Yorke opened the scoring and then sealing Rovers' success with a solo strike.

The only downside for Rovers was that half-time substitute Yorke was forced off five minutes from time with the recurrence of his hamstring problems.

But he had already done the damage by then as Albion were sent crashing to a second successive defeat.

They had been chasing a third home win in a row but, apart from a brief spell at the start of the second half, they struggled to really test Rovers.

While first-half chances were few and far between Albion were still fortunate not to fall behind as Duff did his best to inspire Rovers.

Predictably, Duff was at the centre of all of Rovers' best attacking moments right from the time that he volleyed over the bar in the third minute.

While he also volleyed a cross from David Dunn wide after 27 minutes, Duff was at his most effective as a creator.

His tenth minute cross released Lucas Neill only for the Rovers full-back to see his two close-range shots charged down.

Duff then turned provider again on the stroke of half time with a left-wing centre that picked out the unmarked Egil Ostenstad.

The Norwegian had a golden chance to break the deadlock, but failed to get his close-range header on target as it flew over the bar.

While Rovers toiled in attack, despite the best efforts of Duff, Albion created even less before half time with central defender Darren Moore heading their one clear chance narrowly over the bar after a 15th minute free-kick from Igor Balis.

Rovers had lost their skipper Garry Flitcroft with a shoulder injury after 20 minutes and he was replaced by striker Andy Cole.

Rovers boss Graeme Souness then sent on Yorke as a replacement for Ostenstad at half-time to pair up his first-choice strikeforce.

But little was seen of the former Manchester United team-mates as Albion finally built up their own attacking momentum.

Andy Johnson tested the Rovers goalkeeper Brad Friedel with a long-range drive after 52 minutes.

The American international was then forced to deny Albion striker Jason Roberts twice within the space of four minutes.

He dived to his left and then to his right to hold on to low curling drives.

The intervention of Friedel proved to be crucial as, after 70 minutes, Rovers made the decisive breakthrough after a rare second-half attack.

Unsurprisingly, Duff was involved in the move that led to Rovers' spot-kick.

He was hauled down by the Albion substitute Ronnie Wallwork and Yorke confidently sent Hoult the wrong way from the spot.

Having helped create Rovers' first, Duff fittingly sealed their win with a fine solo strike five minutes later.

He raced clear from midfield and drew Hoult out of his goal before taking the ball around the keeper and firing into an empty net