Blackburn Rovers v Hull City: Back Joe to fire home side to another win

• Blackburn results not great but form is there

• Hull on long winless run

• Two bets to consider from our tipster

Blackburn Rovers - Hull City

Saturday, 19:45
Live on Sky

Blackburn's promotion bid looks solid

Blackburn Rovers welcome Hull City to Ewood Park on Saturday buoyed by their late heroics at Huddersfield Town as they bid for a first victory this side of the international break.

That point on Monday maintained Rovers' position in the top six despite one win from their last five. Performances haven't deteriorated during that run, however, maintaining an average xGD of 0.84.

The challenge for Jon Dahl Tomasson's outfit is to turn performances into victories and a return to home comforts will help. The Lancashire outfit have the second-best home record in the division behind league leaders Burnley and have won four of their last five in front of their own supporters.

Rovers have conceded in each of their last five but are often solid at home, keeping ten clean sheets in 19 league games at Ewood Park. That includes clean sheets against nine of the 14 sides currently tenth or lower in the table. They have taken the lead in 14 of their 19 home matches and conceded just six goals.

Hull struggling through winless run

Hull City find themselves in mid-table and will be looking to bloody the nose of another play-off contender after a bonkers 4-4 draw at Sunderland on Good Friday was followed by a 1-0 win against Millwall on Monday.

However, there are noises around whether Liam Rosenior will keep his job beyond the end of the season and the Tigers are on their longest winless run away from home since July 2020 having failed to win any of their last seven.

Ewood Park is something of a bogey ground too - they have left victorious in just one of their last 11 visits to this particular corner of Lancashire.

Joe Ranks a good bet to score

Joe Rankin-Costello scored his first ever goal as a professional footballer on Monday with a tidy, dinked finish with his left-foot after a sharp one-two.

The 23-year-old nominally lines up as a right-back but his role for the team is unique, asked to step inside during deep possession then make underlapping runs into the area once his side are in the final third.

His goal on Saturday was one of eight attempts he had during the game with seven of those being on target. It's not the first time he has taken a pop at goal either, Rankin-Costello having 22 attempts at goal in his last 11 league starts, including 12 in his three starts this side of the international break. Of those 22 attempts, 16 have come inside of the penalty area.

Stopping Rankin-Costello's forward forays takes a lot of defensive organisation and communication and Hull have struggled to deny similarly fluid outfits recently, conceding four at Sunderland and three against Burnley.

The 23-year-old is playing with real confidence at the moment and is consistently finding himself inside or around the opposition box. There is every reason to believe his first will be followed by a second.