JACK Colback scored his first goal in almost a year to give Queens Park Rangers a 2-1 win over Blackburn Rovers at Loftus Road on Tuesday night.
Colback, 35, came off the bench to score the winner fourteen minutes rom time after Rovers’ Tyrhys Dolan had equalised from the penalty spot in the 53rd following Michael Frey’s fifth-minute opener.
It was a first win after two successive defeats for Marti Cifuentes’ side and they are thirteenth in the Championship, just three points outside the top six and four off Blackburn in fifth.
“Blackburn showed why they are that high in the table because they were dangerous every time they were in the final third,” Cifuentes said “We spoke a lot about how they are a very good transition team. We showed energy, focus and commitment as a team, in that sense. The energy of the fans was fantastic and helped us very much.
“We had a very strong first half. We could have scored another and we said at half-time that it was time to keep pushing. The start of the second was more challenging, but we were very good over all.”
Cifuentes added: “I’m very pleased for Jack. He’s been having a difficult season with injuries. We really needed his experience in a moment when the team was struggling and it was a fantastic performance.
“We got 56 points last season and our target was to improve on that. I don’t think we need to get very carried away.”
Blackburn boss John Eustace felt. Draw would have been a fair result.
He said: “It’s a really tough place to come when they raise the tempo here. We had some great moments but we just weren’t clinical enough. We conceded a couple of really sloppy goals.
“We’ve been very good defensively at set-pieces, but we weren’t good enough at the start. I had a little word with the boys before the second half, but they sorted it out themselves as well.
“The manner of the second goal was really disappointing. We should have done better on the second phase of the attack and we’ve got to put our bodies on the line to keep the ball out of the net.
“A draw would have been a fair result and we would have taken 1-1. There are fifteen games to go now and we can’t look backwards. We’ve got to learn to keep the ball out of the net.”