‘That is a shocking tackle’ – Should Ben Whiteman have seen red for his late challenge during Blackburn’s win against Preston?
On 45 minutes, Blackburn went ahead, a corner was sent in over by Ryan Hedges and Lewis Miller climbed the highest to head home his first goal of the season.
A minute later, straight from the kick off, Preston hit back, with Alfie Devine allowed to make his way into the box and shot past Aynsley Pears, beating defender Sean McLoughlin on the line.
With 30 minutes left of the game, Ryoya Morishita chipped a free-kick with Andri Gudjohnsen at the far post and nodded past Daniel Iversen to make it 2-1 Blackburn, his fourth goals in five league games.
On 87 minutes, Makhtar Gueye went down in the Preston box having received a hand in the face by Andrew Hughes, with referee Paul Tierney turning down penalty appeals.
Shortly after, a yellow card was shown to Preston’s Ben Whiteman after throwing himself into a rash tackle. It is also his fifth caution, meaning he’ll be suspended for the next game at Watford on Tuesday.
The result meant that Blackburn climb up to 16th in the Championship, now closer to the play-off spots than the relegation zone. They make it 5th away win in 7 games, 3rd consecutive away victory, and 4 wins in their last 5 overall.
Preston meanwhile miss the chance to go 2nd and could drop out of the play-offs by the end of the weekend, opening the door for teams below them.
Ben Whiteman… dirty bastard!
Didn’t matter in the end, but a red card all day#Rovers #PNE pic.twitter.com/ZzUMHxqzt3
— Chris P (@cpbrfc) November 21, 2025
🗣️ “It felt more at home at Twickenham than here…”
Should Blackburn have been awarded a penalty? 😬 pic.twitter.com/gb5RjQsxEY
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) November 21, 2025
Tim Sherwood on the Whiteman yellow card: “No question – it’s a red card,” he said
“He knows he’s coming – and it’s a good job he does see him because he lifts his legs off of the floor so he doesn’t get badly hurt.
“This is horrendous, this tackle. He jumps and he takes him away.
“If he gets his foot caught, he breaks his leg and the referee sends him off. Why does he have to have a serious injury for him to get sent off?
“That is a shocking tackle. Whiteman should see red, 100 per cent.”
🗣️ “Second half we huffed and puffed…”
Paul Heckingbottom reflects to Preston’s derby defeat 🤕 pic.twitter.com/jADiOiV3nq
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) November 21, 2025
🗣️ “It’s a really solid performance, straight from the training ground”
Lewis Miller and Andri Gudjohnsen react to Rovers’ derby triumph over Preston! pic.twitter.com/jseP6RemJ9
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) November 21, 2025
Blackburn’s Valerien Ismael:
“After an international break, there’s always a lot of energy when you restart the Championship and we were strong, solid and, after we came into the game in the last 20 minutes of the first half, this was exactly what we wanted until the end of the game.
“In the first minute in the second half, we were really into the game on the front foot again and we knew we had to restart again. I liked the improvement in possession in the opponents’ half; we were less sloppy than the last two weeks, more controlled, more focused, had more purpose in the final third. I think it’s a step ahead for us.”
“I think it was a decent win today. A very strong away performance again. A great evening for us.”
🗣️ “It’s a great, great feeling”
Valerien Ismael hails Blackburn fans for their energy in tonight’s derby against Preston 👏 pic.twitter.com/30BZqAyXf8
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) November 21, 2025
Preston’s Paul Heckingbottom:
“We conceded two really poor goals from our point of view, two set-plays. If you’re going to concede two set-plays in a Championship game, it’s going to be an uphill battle. That’s one reason. We didn’t score when we were on top early on. Put those two things together and it’s going to be a tough, tough game.
“To be fair, even when we went behind, we got back in the game and got what we deserved in the first half.
“In the second half, we huffed and puffed, but I felt, once we conceded another poor goal, we panicked a little bit, lost our shape in our attempts to get back into the game and made the game a little bit too open.
“That game’s not too different from a lot we’ve had this season. We’ve just scored when we’ve been on top and then it’s a different type of game.”
