Dapo Afolayan's Brace Leads Blackburn to Victory Over Millwall

Dapo Afolayan silences protests as Blackburn see off Millwall

The boos started before the football did. "Venky's out" rolled around a restless Ewood Park long before kick-off, the soundtrack to a fanbase that has had enough.

Ninety minutes later, they were on their feet for a different reason.

On his 29th birthday, Dapo Afolayan took a fractured afternoon and bent it to his will, scoring twice in a 3-1 win over Millwall that snapped Blackburn’s four-game winless run and briefly drowned out the discontent.

A flick, a roar, and a first league goal

Millwall settled quicker. They were sharper in the early exchanges, more certain in their passing. Their best opening came on 11 minutes when Camiel Neghli’s low volley threatened to punish Blackburn’s slow start, but Balazs Toth got down smartly to save.

Blackburn needed a jolt. Todd Cantwell tried to provide it with a sharp snapshot that forced Max Crocombe into a tidy stop, yet the tension in the stands lingered.

Then Afolayan stepped in.

Four minutes before the break, Sam Morsy found space just inside the box. His shot was tame, misdirected, going nowhere special. Afolayan changed everything with one touch. He darted across the flight of the ball and, with a clever, improvised flick from close range, steered it into the Millwall net.

First league goal for the club. First genuine roar of the day. For a moment, the protests paused.

Millwall hit back – then Afolayan rips it away

Blackburn undid their own good work almost as soon as the second half began.

Substitute Gady Beyuku had barely stepped onto the pitch when he got himself into trouble. Tairyk Arconte slipped in behind down the left, Beyuku lunged, and the winger went over. Penalty.

Lyndon Dykes grabbed the ball, stared down Toth, and hammered his third of the season straight down the middle. 1-1, six minutes after the restart, and Ewood’s frustration resurfaced.

The game could have drifted away from Tony Mowbray’s side at that point. It didn’t. Afolayan refused to let it.

On 58 minutes, he picked up possession in the centre circle and drove. Millwall’s midfield backed off, one challenge was brushed aside, and Afolayan carried on, head up, left foot ready. From 18 yards he drilled a low, ruthless strike into the bottom corner.

No deflection. No doubt. A statement of a goal. Blackburn’s lead restored, and their belief with it.

Millwall’s big chances go begging

Millwall thought they had clawed themselves level again when Arconte bundled the ball in after a long throw caused chaos in the box. Celebrations were cut short. The referee spotted a foul in the melee and chalked it off, a decision that left Alex Neil furious.

The visitors didn’t sulk. They pushed. They created. And they missed.

Their full-backs were at the heart of it. Zak Sturge burst down the left and drilled a low cross into the middle, finding Arconte stretching at the near post. The winger couldn’t quite wrap his foot around it and diverted wide.

Then came the moment Millwall will replay in their heads on the journey home. Mark Sykes delivered a superb cross from the right, curling it perfectly into the danger area. Dykes met it, unmarked and close in, but planted his header wide. A huge chance, gone.

Arconte kept asking questions. On 73 minutes he twisted Tom Atcheson inside out, cut into the area and let fly, only for Hayden Carter to throw himself in the way and deflect the effort over. Blackburn were hanging on, but just about holding firm.

Neil could only watch as the key moments kept slipping away.

Gudjohnsen finishes the job

With Millwall pushing higher and higher, the space behind them grew. Blackburn waited, picked their moment, and killed the game on the break in stoppage time.

Andri Gudjohnsen started it and finished it. He held the ball up, rolled his marker, and released Jayden Fevrier into open grass. Fevrier surged forward, looked up and squared it back to the Icelandic striker, who had continued his run into the box.

One touch, low into the bottom corner. Gudjohnsen’s third of the season, Blackburn’s third of the afternoon, and finally, certainty.

Managers’ verdicts

Tony Mowbray was quick to single out his match-winner.

He spoke of the Afolayan he remembered from Bolton – direct, aggressive, positive – and of the intelligent, opinionated player he now has on his left flank. Afolayan, he said, challenges, questions, understands. That, in Mowbray’s eyes, is exactly why he can still get more out of him.

On this evidence, there is plenty to work with.

Alex Neil, by contrast, left Ewood Park nursing grievances and regrets. He was incensed by the decision to disallow Arconte’s goal, told by the fourth official it was for Jake Cooper holding as the ball came in. Neil called it “really soft” and pointed to it as one of those moments that define matches.

Beyond the anger, there was honesty. He admitted there was no dominant side, no outstanding performance either way. Blackburn, he said, were simply more clinical in the key moments, a sharp contrast to the Millwall team that has usually excelled “in both boxes” during his tenure.

Not this time.

Blackburn leave with their mood lifted, their protests briefly muted, and a forward in Afolayan who looks ready to carry more of the load. Millwall leave with a third defeat in four and the nagging thought that, on another day, those missed chances and that disallowed goal might have told a very different story.