Leeds 0 - Blackburn 2: Conway and Rhodes ruin Evans' birthday on debut at Elland Road



New Leeds boss Steve Evans was unable to celebrate his birthday in style after his Leeds is lost 2-0



ANY thoughts of a happy birthday for Leeds boss Steve Evans quickly disappeared as his big night at Elland Road ended in disappointment.

Evans is 53 today but the celebrations were put on hold as his first home game in charge only brought more of the same.

Leeds have not won at home since March 4 in a run that now extends to a club record 12 games.

Blackburn have won more often at Elland Road since then and it took them just 17 seconds to set up a first away win of the season and a repeat of their victory here in April.

 

Craig Conway and team-mates celebrating his goal after 17 seconds at Elland Road

Rovers hadn't scored in their last three games but they quickly ended their drought, straight from the kick-off, when defender Sol Bamba mis-cued an attempted headed clearance from Tom Lawrence and Craig Conway lashed the ball home at the far post.

If that was bad, things quickly got worse for Leeds as Jordan Rhodes made it 2-0 with five minutes gone.

Again Lawrence - who previously played on loan from Leicester under Evans at Rotherham - was involved as he fed the ball into Rhodes.

 

Jordan Rhodes celebrating with Blackburn team-mates after putting his side 2-0 up

And the Scotland international, whose father Andy is a friend of Evans, easily beat Sam Byram before steering home a shot from 15 yards to claim his eighth goal in nine games.

That triggered a chorus of boos as Leeds owner Massimo Cellino looked on stony-faced and even though Leeds improved, a header from Tom Adeyemi was the nearest they came to pulling a goal back.

Evans said: “The league table doesn’t lie. We knew the job would be a big one anyway When we haven’t won at home for seven months the supporters are already on edge when they walk in the door and they are entitled to be unhappy. I thought the supporters were reserved.

“It might have been a bit more at my if we had gone 2-0 down in six minutes.”

Blackburn boss Gary Bowyer said: “There was a lot said in the build-up to the game about what it would be like here so it was important we came out of the traps very fast.”