GARY Bowyer was left purring but not surprised by the ‘wonderful’ goals that earned Blackburn Rovers a 2-1 home win over Rotherham United last night.

Craig Conway opened the scoring when he cut inside on to his right foot and bent a beautiful and powerful shot into the top corner.

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And, after Matt Derbyshire equalised on his return to his beloved Ewood Park, Jordan Rhodes sealed an ultimately deserved victory when he was on hand to finish off a flowing team move.

Rovers boss Bowyer, whose side had gone down to a harsh 1-0 defeat at Watford on Saturday, said:  “It was hard fought but every game in the Championship is hard fought. We matched their effort and I thought we controlled the game for long periods.

“Like I said we would, we took a lot of confidence from Saturday and I thought you saw that in the first half when were totally dominant in terms of possession and when we scored a wonderful goal from Craig it was richly deserved.

“The second half got under way and I think the referee influenced it with some poor decisions but we didn’t let that bother us, we carried on, and I thought we showed fantastic spirit after we conceded the equaliser.

“You saw the resilience and the togetherness of the lads and we scored another wonderful goal.

“It was a fantastic cross from Craig Conway and Ben Marshall did terrifically well at the back post to win it. The ball broke to Jordan and he did what he does best.

“So two wonderful goals but they didn’t surprise me because they were both working on similar things after training on Monday.

“Craig was practising cutting in from his left and bending them in with his right and Jordan was working on the first ball going over his head and reacting for the second – and that’s exactly what he did for his goal.”

Bowyer, who used to play for Rotherham, was unhappy after his counterpart Steve Evans had a word in the ear of referee Geoff Eltringham at half-time.

Evans felt his team, who were unbeaten in their previous three matches, should have been awarded a first-half penalty after the ball appeared to hit the hand of Alex Baptiste, who was an early replacement for the injured Jason Lowe.

The Millers boss said: “It was a blatant handball. We're Rotherham, we don’t get them, do we?

“We have been on the end of another atrocious decision but we’re used to it.

“We’re Rotherham so people at the Football League possibly don’t want us in the Championship but we are going to fight to be here.”

Of the match itself Evans said: “I was really disappointed with the first half, I don't think we turned up at Ewood Park.

“In the second half we changed it and I thought we were the better team for the final half an hour. Then their second goal is hard to take.

"I was really pleased with the last half-hour and I am proud of it and I think we go away unfortunate."