Full Ewood Park pleases Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray

Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray was thrilled at the “fantastic sight” of a packed stadium after his side celebrated promotion back to the Championship with a 2-1 win over Oxford.

Rovers ensured they finished second thanks to Darragh Lenihan’s first goal for the club and Jack Payne’s winner – also his first strike for Blackburn – sandwiched either side of James Henry’s clever equaliser.

Charlie Mulgrew missed a penalty at 1-0 but former U’s loanee Payne ensured the crowd in excess of 27,000 were sent home happy after the home league run stretched to 20 games.

Mowbray wanted to focus away from the pitch invasion at the end, and instead at the support afforded to his team.

He said: “It’s been a long time these supporters have had a season to celebrate but I shouldn’t take away from the day.

“What I would say is my emotion was seeing the stadium full, the top tier full. I’ve been here for 14 months and I’ve never seen the top tiers opened so to see the ground almost overflowing was a fantastic sight.

“Oxford are a good football team with good players and an experienced manager. But we found a way to win. That’s what we’ve been doing. The last time we lost a game at home was the middle of September.

“You do the maths of how many months that is, but this team finds a way to do it and we did it again.

“It was an amazing sight seeing the stadium full. Ninety-six points I think we should mention. That’s a lot of points in any league at any time.”

Oxford’s two-game winning run came to an end but boss Karl Robinson was angry at the pitch invasion which led to him confronting a fan.

He said: “I shouldn’t do that. But when people attack my players I don’t take too kindly to it.

“That’s just the way it is, unfortunately. But people need to understand, I worked at this club (Blackburn) for a while and it is a very special football club.

“Don’t let some idiot spoil it. The atmosphere was electric, and some divvy gets the plaudits? That can’t be right.

“It was one or two (fans) had a hold of my players.

“We were going over to say thank you to our fans, so I don’t make any apologies.

“There was no needle in the game and they’re going up, so why should there be a problem?

“We finish in a very positive frame of mind. Our only two defeats in the last few games have been to the sides in first and second and both were by a one-goal margin. I think it’s progress.”