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Penalty heartache for Rovers

Blackburn - Blackburn sank to the foot of the Premier League on Saturday after going down to a late penalty in their 1-0 home defeat against Everton having earlier missed two spot-kicks of their own.

Spanish midfielder Mikel Arteta kept his cool in stoppage time to earn all three points, but his Everton team should have been dead and buried after Rovers spurned two glorious opportunities to put the game out of reach.

David Hoilett and Argentinian substitute Mauro Formica were both unsuccessful with second-half spot kicks as Everton miraculously came away with three points which move them up to 10th in the table.

It is the first time lowly Rovers have lost their first three league games of a season since 1951.

Despite a brief spell of early pressure from the Toffees, it was Rovers who looked the more threatening and they came within a whisker of breaking the deadlock through midfielder David Dunn, but the former England international's firm drive cannoned off the post.

Rovers manager Steve Kean was forced to shuffle his pack after half-an-hour when midfield duo Morten Gamst Pedersen and Dunn were forced off with injury, to be replaced by Serbian Radosav Petrovic and midfielder Formica.

The second half started in a nightmare fashion for young Everton defender Ross Barkley when he surrendered possession to Formica and in his desperation to make amends upended the midfielder in the penalty area.

Fortunately for the 17-year-old, goalkeeper Howard guessed correctly and palmed away Hoilett's spot kick.

The American stopper came to the rescue again 10 minutes later, moving sharply to keep out Formica's dipping 25-yard drive.

The home side spurned another golden opportunity shortly afterwards when substitute David Goodwillie found himself unchallenged in front of goal, but the new signing clipped the crossbar with his close-range effort.

Rovers' pressure paid off when they were awarded another penalty following Phil Jagielka's clumsy challenge on Formica. However, the substitute could not convert, striking his effort against the post.

The home team's misery was completed in injury time when they were ruthlessly punished for their profligacy by a combination of questionable refereeing and cool finishing.

Rovers defender Christopher Samba, returning from injury, was harshly adjudged to have clambered over Marouane Felaini and Arteta stepped up to claim the points with a shot into the bottom corner.

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