Two goals, one from Alex Marrow, the other from debutant midfielder Jason Lowe, saw Blackburn's second eleven, return to winning ways last night.
Having been in action at Ewood Park last week, Iain Brunskill's side returned to the more familiar surroundings of Christie Park, Morecambe. The team included the experienced El-Hadji Diouf but also saw the inclusion of a number of younger players making their first starts, including Philip Jones at right back, and Jason Lowe at centre midfield in the starting eleven.
The home sixde started started brightly, passing well and using both wings to make forays into Hull territory. Right back, Jones, who celebrated his 17th birthday only last week, crossed into the Tigers' area, but Julio Santa Cruz just failed to connect.
On the opposite wing Haworth was making the Hull defence nervous with his darting runs, causing them to clear hurriedly. On 20 minutes Santa Cruz cleverly timed his run to perfection and was clear on goal with only the keeper to beat but his diagonal shot just missed the right hand upright.
Rovers were dominating possession and making all the running. 30 minutes into the game Marcus Marshal was narrowly offside, but only two minutes later, a deep Haworth cross to the far side of Hull's goal was cleverly kept in play by Marshall onto the head of Marrow who thundered the ball past the helpless Hull keeper, Tom Woodhead.
Hull offered little as an attacking threat as Rovers dominated all areas of the field. Indeed their first real attack on the home side's goal was on 35 minutes, but was well dealt with by a strong defence.
With only five minutes of the first half left, Rovers were forced to make their first substitution as Johnny Flynn was replaced by 18 year old, Michael Hall.
A Hull City cross into the Rovers box was dealt with confidently by Andreas Arestidou ending the action for the first half.
With no substitutions, the second half started much as the first had ended with a confident Rovers side pressuring the Hull area repeatedly. Marcus Marshall danced his way into the Hull penalty area, beating three defenders before letting off a shot which had the Hull goalkeeper at full stretch.
A Blackburn corner was headed goal ward by Dean Winnard, only to be blocked by a startled Hull defence. The clearance found Jason Lowe on the edge of the area. His volley struck sweet and true and flew like a missile into the top left hand corner of the Hull goal as the opposition defence could only stand and stare!
Soon after Diouf was replaced by Michael Potts.
Hull rallied as the half wore on. Gavin Gunning conceded a dangerous free kick on the edge of the home side's penalty area. The Tigers managed to beat the wall only to be thwarted by Arestidou, who was confident and assured despite having little to do.
With five minutes to go, Iain Brunskill gave another "young gun" his reserve debut, as Irish U19's international Gearoid Morrissey came on for Jason Lowe
The home side had to suffer one moment of concern in the last minutes of the game, as following a scuffed clearance by the Rovers defence, Hull's John Welsh rifled a shot just over the bar.
The reserves' next game is an away clash against Everton on 10th March at the Halton Stadium, Widnes
ROVERS: Arestidou, Jones, Gunning, Flynn (sub Hall 37mins), Winnard, Lowe (sub Morrissey 85 mins), Marshall, Marrow, Santa Cruz, Diouf, (sub Potts 62 mins), Haworth.
Subs not used: Bateson, Bussmann, O'Connor
HULL CITY: Woodhead, Gardner, Lamplough, Welsh, Plummer, Cooper (sub Bradley 72 mins), Devitt ( sub Hanley 55 mins), Cairney, Kendall, Atkinson, Emmerton.
Subs not used: Deagle, East, Raymond.
