Blackburn Reserves 2 Blues Reserves 2

Last updated : 16 March 2005 By Brian Cartlidge

Blues started the game brightly and striker Clinton Morrison had two good chances to give Keith Bertschin's side the lead at Christie Park but he was denied twice by Rovers keeper Steven Drench in the first 20 minutes.

Blues were made to pay for these misses when midway through the first half Rovers striker Keith Barker capitalised on a dreadful backpass from Marcos Painter and fired past the helpless James Dormand in the Blues goal to give the hosts a one goal lead.

Rovers had a couple of other chances leading up to the half time whistle and Blues were a little fortunate to go in at the break trailing by just the one goal.

All this changed however immediately after the break as the home side doubled their advantage.

Dormand could only parry out a shot from Hodges and Barker was the quickest to react to the rebound. The forward firing home to score his and Rovers second of the night.

Blues were on the backfoot now although on one of the rare occasions they did get a sniff at goal Morrison was again guilty of missing a reasonable chance.

With less than 20 minutes remaining however Blues clawed themselves back into the game. A harmless looking Sam Alsop left wing free-kick evaded everyone in the box, including keeper Drench, and sailed into the net to bring the score back to 2-1.

Dormand then kept Blues in the game with a superb save from an Andy Taylor strike before with just minutes remaining Blues equalised.

Drench could only parry substitute David Howland's goalbound header into the path of Peter Till who made no mistake with the rebound to earn Blues a share-of-the-spoils.

Blackburn: Drench, Barr (sub Kane 73 mins), Taylor, Harkins, L. Jones, Nolan, Watt, Byrom, Derbyshire (sub Garner 79 mins), Barker, Hodge. Subs: Fielding, Woods, De Vita.

Blues: Dormand, Parratt, Alsop, Oji, Painter, Diao, Hall, Carter (sub Howland 73 mins), Morrison (sub Blake 89 mins), Till, Birley (sub Wright 59 mins). Subs: Meredith, Cottrill.