THE dart into the penalty box, and the ferocious, unstoppable header into the corner of the net, it was a sight all too familiar for Blackburn Rovers supporters.

Rudy Gestede’s winner for Aston Villa in their grudge Capital One Cup clash with bitter rivals Birmingham City on Tuesday was the 21st headed goal he has scored since August 2013.

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That is more than any other player in the top four divisions of English football over the same period.

Most of those goals, of course, came for Rovers, who not only are being forced to learn to live without their leading scorer from last season, but also their out ball.

It is an out ball which Gary Bowyer admits his players became over-reliant on, sometimes preferring to hit it long knowing their talismanic targetman could and often would make something of it.

But with Gestede having swapped the blue and white of Rovers for the claret and blue of Villa, that option is no longer available to them.

That has led to Bowyer devising a more patient approach, designed to get the best out of the prolific Jordan Rhodes, and which is showing signs of paying off.

Rhodes goes into today’s trip to his former suitors Hull City with four goals in his last three games, during which Rovers have rained down 50 shots on the opposition’s net.

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“We’ve asked the players to play a different way this year and it’s safe to say that when we had Rudy Gestede – who scored the other night with a typical Rudy goal; I was delighted for him – that sometimes he provided our lads with an easy option,” said Bowyer, who signed the Benin international for £200,000 and, after 34 goals in 65 appearances, saw him sold to Villa for £6m.

“They could ping it up there to him but now there is more cleverness and thought going into the play.

“There have been times this season when the ball has gone into the box and I’ve thought, ‘Rudy would have scored that’, but that’s life.

“We’ve moved on and the players, full credit to them, they’ve had to adapt and change, and we are seeing the results of that at this moment in time on the pitch.

“We are creating an unbelievable amount of chances and we’ve got to keep doing that because the performance of Jordan in front of goal is phenomenal.”

Rhodes could have been lining up on the opposite side tomorrow had Rovers accepted a club record bid from Hull in August 2014.

Without the Scotland international the toothless Tigers slipped out of the Premier League and returned to the Championship, where they currently sit fourth.

Their lofty position is largely thanks to their superb form at the KC Stadium, where they have won three and drawn one of their four league matches, and where they knocked top-flight Swansea City out of the Capital One Cup on the same night Gestede wrote his name into Villa folklore.

But Bowyer said: “Our last two away performances have probably been the best since we’ve been in charge here.

“There’s a lot of confidence flying through the squad and they’re really looking forward to Saturday’s game.”