Valerien Ismael pointed to Blackburn's desire as the reason they ended a difficult 2025 with a much-needed 2-0 win over play-off contenders Millwall.
Blackburn's home form had previously yielded one win in 10, but they escaped the traps to fend off a substandard Millwall with two first-half goals when Andri Gudjohnsen scored his fourth goal in his last seven matches in the third minute.
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Yuki Ohashi doubled the lead before the break and he won't have an easier goal this season, taking advantage of a chronic communication breakdown in Millwall's defence.
There was no drama in the second half as Blackburn held on comfortably, registering their first clean sheet at home since February and easing their relegation worries.
And boss Ismael praised the fast start and the way his side played the game.
He said: “It was important for us to get the three points. We know 2025 was a difficult year at home, but we always kept going forward. Our aim was to go into the game with a great desire to play more forward, to be at the forefront, which we did in the first half, and finally we had a little luck with the second goal as well.”
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“It’s always the same, when you put pressure on the back four, at some point you force a mistake.
“In the second half you immediately saw that Millwall had changed their form to make it more consistent and that was all for us, we were talking about staying consistent rather than being good because now it's about winning honours.
“I thought the boys did a great job in the second half. We were very strong, I didn't have a feeling Millwall would come back into the game, we defended set pieces well and gave some debuts to the Academy boys, so I think it's a great day for Rovers.”
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Millwall remain in the play-off zone despite back-to-back defeats.
Alex Neil called his side's first-half performance “unacceptable” and said they were “far behind” expected standards.
He said: “In the first half I thought we were nowhere near what we were capable of. I thought we weren't sharp enough. Both in and out of possession we made it so easy for Blackburn.”
“The first goal I think is terrible. We jump out from under the defender and let him get away from us. We've been talking about that all week. Then the cutback to then score in the second phase – the kick comes back and they score the next one.”
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“The second goal basically sums up our performance in the first half. When you divide it into thirds you get: the top third got the better of our forwards, the middle third they took more second balls than we did in the first half and I think in their top third they pushed our centre-backs and made it difficult for us and were simply the brighter side on the pitch.
“If I could have made more changes at half-time, I would have. That's how frustrated I was with the first half, especially when you look at how far our fans have come before Christmas and we're serving this first half. Unacceptable.”
“I thought at least in the second half we fought but we lacked quality.”
