ASSISTANT boss Ray Mathias was delighted with the performance of Rovers after they overcame a potential banana-skin to defeat Grimsby 4-1 at Ewood Park.
Grimsby stunned Ewood by taking the lead on seven minutes courtesy of a free-kick from Newey, but Rovers overcame that shock to take control with goals in quick succession from Carlos Villanueva, Matt Derbyshire and Brett Emerton.
A further goal from Derbyshire in the second half stretched Rovers lead with Mathias delighted with the display.
"In the first 20-25 minutes I thought they were in the game and pressured us a lot," said Assistant manager Ray Mathias on Radio Rovers after the game.
"But once we got into our pattern of play things started doing the right things I think things started to change then.
"I think we opened them up, especially in the second half, we pushed their wing-backs on and we had so much play and so much of the ball it was just unbelievable really, and as you've seen, with the chances we created, it was fantastic.
"You can't wish for anything more exciting than that."
It was the display from Chilean sensation Carlos Villanueva that left the home fans and Mathias drooling.
"He started off a little bit shaky, feeling the pressure of the game just trying to get into the tempo of the game. But once he got into that he was absolutely fantastic.
"We've seen him score goals like that all the time in training so it just shows what he can do. He also had a hand in two of the other goals so it was a complete performance from the boy."
But it wasn't only Villanueva that impressed under the Ewood lights on Wednesday evening, Matt Derbyshire and Keith Treacy also caught the eye of Mathias.
"When you talk about man-of-the-match displays I thought Matt did very well indeed, you look at the chances he's created for himself with his movement and the crosses coming into the box he could have four or five goals tonight.
"Keith is a great athlete, he can get forward and deliver good quality crosses and also he has pace to defend at the back. He's a little bit new in that position at left back but he has done very well tonight and he has certainly staked a claim on the team."
