A DELIGHTED Gary Bowyer hailed his side’s superb 2-0 victory at home to Ipswich Town yesterday as the most complete performance of his Blackburn Rovers reign.

Rovers, in the first half in particular, were outstanding, with and without the ball, and they secured their second straight home win with a brace of early goals from talismanic top-scorer Jordan Rhodes.

Ipswich, having been outfought, out-thought and outran before the break, threw caution to the wind after the restart and at one stage had four forwards, including Daryl Murphy, the leading marksman in the Championship last season, on the field.

But they could find no way to beat Jason Steele, who made four fine saves to ensure Rovers made it three straight clean sheets, and prevent last season’s beaten play-off semi-finalists from scoring in a league match for the first time since March 1.

Bowyer said: “I think it’s probably the most complete performance since we’ve been in charge.

“We came out of the traps ever so well, scored two goals very quickly and continued to play some excellent stuff.

“We got to half-time and knew with the firepower Ipswich have got that there would be times when we were going to be under the cosh in the second half, and that proved to be the case.

“We still created some great chances but the resilience we showed to come out of that game with a clean sheet was fantastic, as let’s not kids ourselves, Ipswich are going to be right up there this season, especially with the options Mick McCarthy’s got, and at one point he had all of them on.

“It’s very, very difficult to pick out any one individual. It was the most complete team performance.”

Rhodes was named the man of the match after his ice-cool penalty and wonderful headed finish made it seven goals in his last five matches.

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It also meant the striker, who was sold by Ipswich in July 2009, has now scored six times in his last six appearances against his former club.

Bowyer said: “Rightly so he’s going to get the plaudits for two goals again. The header is a fantastic header and he’s the calmest lad on the planet when it comes to taking penalties. He’s in a very good, rich vein of form.  

“The team is playing ever so well, creating a lot of chances, and there’s nobody better in this division to get on the end of them.”

The victory extended Rovers’ unbeaten run to four games and hauled them up to 14th, three points above the bottom three and seven behind the top six.

It also ended Ipswich’s three-match unbeaten league run.

Their manager McCarthy, whose side had scored in each of their previous 21 league games, said: “They got their tails up from the start and it was always going to be difficult to get those two goals back.

“I have to say they started well. They played like us when we were in our pomp last season and played well with a 4-4-2.

“They got about us with people blocking things and stopping us playing, and they did it better than we did.”