A red card for top-scorer Yakubu and a series of sputtered chances by Rovers were soon compensated by an injury time Pedersen goal to take Blackburn 1-0 up against Fulham before the break.

However, with striking duties now left to substitute Goodwillie and Rovers down to ten men, the home side will surely have to up the ante to hold onto their lead.

It looked to be a brisk start for Rovers after a Lowe cross down the wing was headed on by Dunn. However the waiting Yakubu on the receiving end was quickly ruled offside only two minutes in.

Lowe once again developed some quick plays. Breaking down the right he offloaded the ball to Pedersen who fed it to Yakubu. With Lowe still driving forward, Yakubu’s well-timed backheel was claimed by Jason Lowe again, but with Fulham defenders clamping down, the ensuing strikes at goal sputtered out.

With most of Rovers’ assaults following a similar fashion, Fulham’s own rallies around the home side’s box started to look a little more convincing.

With Dempsey and Ruiz looking to pull off a shot, Rovers had to clamp down early to see off any danger.

Bobby Zamora almost took the opener for Fulham after his header clattered off the crossbar twenty-two minutes in.

Blackburn’s own goalscoring fortunes took a turn for the worse when Yakubu was shown red after a high-footed tackle on Danny Murphy a minute later.

With the side down to ten men and the Nigerian hitman providing pretty much all of Rovers’ goals this season, things were not looking good.

Without a striker on the pitch, Kean soon opted to replace Radosav Petrovic with David Goodwillie; hoping the out-of-favour Scot could fill the goals vacuum left by Yakubu.

Play was soon stopped again after Grant Hanley went down with a suspected head injury after an elbow from his own teammate Pedersen. However the Scot resumed the field once play restarted.

With Fulham gaining a freekick, the following strike and Senderos header saw Robinson given his first real test of the match with a brilliant dive to tip it wide.

Minutes later he was tested again after Dempsey and Frei broke past Rovers’ defence, with the latter firing off a floating cross for the advancing Dempsey. However, the keeper was quick to react to make a calm save before the shot.

With the clock turning to injury-time, a foul on David Dunn was quickly turned into an opening goal, after a swerving freekick from Mortem Gamst Pedersen struck true just before the whistle.