Baggies in trouble as Blackburn maintain form

Blackburn 2 West Brom 0

Shefki Kuqi won the points for Blackburn – and the hearts of the supporters with a two-goal salvo.

The former Ipswich striker enjoyed himself as well, celebrating with a couple of massive swallow dives.

Yet he started the game on the bench and was only called into the action when Craig Bellamy went off in the 14th minute.

Kuqi, who arrived in the summer on a free transfer, took his chance with his first goals for the club with the clock ticking down.

There was a moment of danger for the home side in the seventh minute when Martin Albrechtsen went on a surging run down the right.

He delivered a deep cross from the byline and Kevin Campbell only just failed to get a vital touch with Blackburn exposed.

West Brom pushed forward and goalkeeper Brad Friedel did well to parry Jonathan Greening’s close-range effort from an acute angle.

Kuqi was quickly into the action after replacing Bellamy and headed narrowly wide following a cross from David Bentley.

Lucas Neill was seeing plenty of ball and delivered a good cross in the 21st minute that was headed to safety by Albrechtsen.

Friedel then looked slightly uncertain when Neil Clement sent the ball high into the area. He spilt the ball under pressure from Zoltan Gera but Ryan Nelsen mopped up.

Hungarian international Gera got away from Neill only to be tripped in the 32nd minute and the full-back collected a booking in the process.

With Bellamy absent, Blackburn were showing little of the flair that had dismantled Manchester United at this stage of the game last time out.

They were finding it difficult to string their passes together and there was little flowing football for the supporters to enjoy.

West Brom were getting bodies behind the ball and content to try to hit their opponents on the break.

Blackburn began to force the pace a little bit more as half-time approached but were restricted to efforts from outside the area.

David Bentley made space for himself only to see his effort go wide of Kirkland’s left-hand post.

Then Reid raced forward but failed to test Kirkland with his effort which failed to find the target.

Kirkland then needed treatment after being winded by Reid as he attempted to get on the end of Gray’s cross.

Zurab Khizanishvili almost made the breakthrough for Blackburn in stoppage time only for his effort to be scrambled away following a flick on from Kuqi.

West Brom were grateful to Albrechtsen in the 47th minute when he took the ball off Paul Dickov’s toes after Kuqi had swept in the cross.

Tugay then played a free-kick short to Reid but he drove the ball straight at Kirkland from 20 yards.

Blackburn were beginning to play some nice football and Dickov rode a couple of stiff challenges before dragging a shot wide in the 54th minute.

Albrechtsen was not afraid to take men on but was left in a heap by Nelsen two minutes later as he charged forward.

It was a cynical challenge but the Blackburn central defender escaped with a yellow card to the annoyance of the West Brom fans.

Play switched down the other end and Dickov had a penalty appeal waved away by referee Uriah Rennie when he went to ground after a challenge by Curtis Davies.

Morten Gamst Pedersen, the two-goal hero of Old Trafford, cut inside only for the industrious Albrechtsen to make a good block.

The tempo of the game had increased and the Norwegian international Pedersen was comin more into it.

Dickov knocked in a fine cross after 69 minutes and Kuqi got on the end of it only for Paul Robinson to make the block.

Pedersen floated in a corner after 75 minutes and Aaron Mokoena got in a header that was cleared by Gera.

Blackburn made the breakthrough with 10 minutes to go when Kuqi got his first goal for the club.

The free transfer signing from Ipswich in the summer powered in a header from Pedersen’s corner.

Kuqi added a second goal two minutes from time when he took advantage of a poor back pass from Davies.

While he was celebrating these are difficult days for West Brom who have now failed to win in six league games.