Blackburn substitute Benni McCarthy’s headed equaliser in the third minute of injury time salvaged a 1-1 draw at home to Middlesbrough.
Afonso Alves scored the opener in the 74th minute after out-pacing veteran centre-back Andre Ooijer and turning to fire past goalkeeper Paul Robinson.
However, McCarthy rose highest at a late corner to head in at the near post, although the main talking point of the match was Tuncay Sanli’s wrongly disallowed overhead kick in the first half.
A draw was the least the hosts deserved after dominating throughout and hitting the post through Roque Santa Cruz in the first half.
Rovers seized the initiative early on when Carlos Villanueva let fly from outside the penalty area but his shot took a slight deflection and went narrowly wide.
Jeremie Aliadiere then smashed a volley against the crossbar from Chris Riggott’s hopeful ball forward as the Blackburn defence appealed for offside against the inactive Alves.
At the other end goalkeeper Ross Turnbull had to save well with his legs from Brett Emerton who burst through on the right of the area in the 11th minute.
The home side continued to press forward but Matt Derbyshire bobbled his shot into the ground after Santa Cruz cleverly knocked down Danny Simpson’s cross.
Santa Cruz should have made the breakthrough Rovers deserved in the 16th minute when he was put through by Stephen Warnock but although his shot beat Turnbull it rebounded back off the far post.
Against the run of play Tuncay buried an overhead kick past Robinson, making his 300th club career start, but he was wrongly flagged for offside.
In the 29th minute Turnbull did well to parry Santa Cruz’s powerful header from Villanueva’s left-sided corner but in the scramble that followed referee Mike Dean awarded a free-kick to the visitors.
Villanueva was then caught in two minds whether to pass or shoot as he ran at the Middlesbrough defence and his delay resulted in him being blocked out.
Just before half-time the Chilean was again too slow as he considered when to shoot from Warnock’s through-ball into the penalty area and David Wheater got across to tackle.
In the second minute of injury time Turnbull had to scramble to claw away Santa Cruz’s sliding effort to keep the scores goalless.
Less than 30 seconds after the restart Villanueva was in the action again, curling a left-foot shot wide from 30 yards.
In the 50th minute Santa Cruz sustained a neck injury after colliding with Emerton as they both tried to reach Villanueva’s free-kick at the far post but he was able to continue after lengthy treatment.
Another free-kick, this time from Emerton 35 yards out in a central position, picked out Nelsen but he could not make a decent connection from close range.
Middlesbrough’s first shot of the second half saw Alves cut inside from the right only for his effort to be deflected for a corner.
In the 65th minute McCarthy was sent on to replace Derbyshire in attempt to make the breakthrough.
But when it finally came in the 74th minute it was the visitors who made it.
Alves chased a hopeful ball over the top but beat Ooijer to it, turned the 34-year-old defender and fired past Robinson.
But in the third minute of injury time South Africa striker McCarthy rose highest at the near post to head home Emerton’s corner for the equaliser.
Reuters