Blackburn vs Derby match report: Paul Clement escapes former home with a point

​Blackburn Rovers 0 Derby County 0

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On a CV that includes coaching spells with Chelsea, Paris St-Germain and Real Madrid, a short stint at Blackburn Rovers wouldn’t appear to rank too highly.

Paul Clement spent four months at Ewood Park working under Steve Kean at the start of the ill-fated 2011/12 season which ended with Blackburn’s relegation to the Championship.

Clement insists he enjoyed the work - at least until Carlo Ancelotti came calling again from Paris - but his Blackburn return last night as Derby manager couldn’t have been too much fun as he saw his side fail to build on a three-match winning run and miss the chance to go third in the table.

Derby hadn’t failed to score away from home since the opening day of the season but in truth they barely threatened against a Blackburn side which hadn’t conceded in winning their last two home games - their only wins this season.

Scotland colleagues Chris Martin and Jordan Rhodes have both scored seven times this season but with both starved of service by their respective sides, a stalemate looked the outcome from a long way out.

Before kick-off Rovers remembered Howard Kendall, their former player-manager who died last weekend at the age of 69.

It was with Blackburn in 1979 that Kendall launched a managerial career that later brought him great success at Everton and as the fall-out from the Kean era continues to afflict the Lancashire club they are again looking to a first-time manager to lead them back towards happier days.

Gary Bowyer - a youth coach while Clement worked in the senior set-up - has been in charge for two-and-a-half years but these are testing times.

Bowyer could have done with a win to raise morale ahead of Saturday’s East Lancashire derby against Burnley when Blackburn will look to avenge their defeat in the fixture the last time the sides met - the Clarets first win in 35 years.

They could have had one had Chris Taylor taken one of a couple of early chances and Tom Lawrence managed to beat Scott Carson after the break. But at least they stopped Derby in their tracks with a solid defensive display in which Grant Hanley and Shane Duffy avoided the yellow cards which would have kept either out of the derby.

Blackburn (4-4-1-1): Steele; Marshall, Duffy, Hanley, Olsson; Lawrence, Evans, Akpan, Delfouneso; Taylor; Lawrence, Rhodes. Substitutes: Raya, Spurr, Williamson, O’Sullivan, Petshi, Nyambe, Lenihan.

Derby (4-1-4-1): Carson; Christie, Keogh, Shackell, Warnock; Thorne; Ince, Butterfield, Johnson, Russell; Martin. Substitutes: Grant, Forsyth, Bent, Baird, Pearce, Weimann, Hanson.

Referee: Darren Drysdale.