Referee Dermot Gallagher left Ewood Park through a side entrance on Saturday with another blot on his record after wrongly sending off Aston Villa's goalkeeper Michael Oakes for deliberate hand-ball.

Gallagher, who was given a onematch ban earlier this year for not dismissing a player who had committed a statutory red-card offence, left Villa with a near impossible task when he sent off Oakes after 54 minutes of huff and puff in blustery conditions.

Oakes had rushed to the edge of his penalty area to collect a seemingly innocuous punt, but realised his momentum was going to take him outside the penalty area and dropped the ball. Alerted by a linesman, Gallagher deemed it deliberate hand-ball.

As Oakes trudged down the tunnel, even the home supporters offered him a sympathetic round of applause, while the television analysts were pointing out Gallagher's error.

The Villa manager, John Gregory, said afterwards there had never been a better case for bringing in a fourth official to adjudicate using television evidence.

"I am not talking about petty offsides and the like," Gregory said. "But a referee should be able to consult a fourth official who has the benefit of television evidence for major decisions if there is any doubt in his mind."

Blackburn were already a goal up at the time of Oakes's dismissal. Their first-half domination was rewarded by Kevin Gallacher's follow-up header on the stroke of half-time after Tim Sherwood's first effort had struck the underside of the bar.

Villa could count themselves unfortunate after a courageous fight-back capped by Riccardo Scimeca's 20-yard drive 10 minutes from time. But seven minutes later Sherwood benefitted from the industry of the substitute Kevin Davies to beat Villa's replacement goalkeeper Adam Rachel, although even that was overshadowed by visiting complaints of hand-ball.

Blackburn: Filan, Kenna, Davidson, Sherwood, Henchoz (Broomes 45), Gallacher (Duff 74), Sutton (Davies 66), Wilcox, McKinlay, Dailly, Gillespie. Subs Not Used: Johnson, Fettis. Booked: Davidson, Broomes, Wilcox, Davies. Goals: Gallacher 44, Sherwood 88.

Aston Villa: Oakes, Wright, Southgate, Ehiogu, Watson, Taylor (Collymore 69), Thompson, Joachim (Grayson 83), Dublin, Hendrie (Rachel 57), Scimeca. Subs Not Used: Charles, Draper. Sent Off: Oakes (56). Booked: Scimeca. Goals: Scimeca 81. Att: 27,536.

Referee: D Gallagher (Banbury).