Blackburn Rovers showed Eustace's true impact at Burnley

The scoreline only tells part of the story after a pulsating and card-heavy Lancashire derby at Turf Moor. Andi Weimann's wonderstrike drew Rovers level after Lyle Foster had headed the Clarets ahead.

It was Burnley in the ascendency early on until Weimann's looping volley. From then until the hour-mark, it was an even, back-and-forth, encounter until Makhtar Guey's dismissal.

Rovers then held on with ten, defending their box stoically and restricting Burnley to little other than teritory. John Eustace was delighted with his side and understandably so after earning another point, taking them to eight for the campaign.

Here are our key takeaways from the game at Turf Moor.

READ MORE: JOHN EUSTACE'S 'POOR' VERDICT AFTER ROVERS CONTROVERSEY

Card-happy referee

We have to talk about Tony Harrington. I think this is the first time I have written in-depth about a refereeing performance. I don't like doing it, they're human at the end of the day and nobody likes VAR.

That said, the way he chose to referee the game was nonsensical. The match ended with 11 yellow cards brandished. It wasn't a dirty game. Physical? Sure. Competitive? Absolutely. But he created such a low threshold for cards that someone was bound to be sent off.

Once you give one soft yellow in such a heated environment, every challenge becomes a booking in the eyes of both players. So it's little surprise then that Gueye felt so aggrieved that Maxime Esteve wasn't cautioned after a cynical foul.

Should he have waved the card? Probably not and rules are rules. See Fred Onyedinma last season at Rotherham United. But it spoiled the game and felt entirely avoidable. Not because of that specific incident but because of how Harrington had set the match up in the previous 57 minutes.

I sat down and watched Swansea vs Cardiff last weekend, another hot-headed affair. But that game was allowed to breathe and it flowed for 90 minutes.

That's all before we get to the Tyrhys Dolan disallowed goal. It wasn't offside and, no, it wasn't ruled out for a foul by Ryan Hedges, as confirmed by Eustace post-match.

I could see from my vantage point, high up to the left, that Dolan was clearly onside. The TV monitors in the press box confirmed that. A really poor decision by the linesman who was right in front of it.

It was a fantastic game and there's plenty else to talk about. But it would be remiss to ignore how the officials shaped this game for the worse.

Grit and determination

Last season, Blackburn Rovers would've lost that match. Especially after having to defend their box under that level of scrutiny for half an hour.

Dom Hyam would've been disappointed at how easily Foster evaded him for the opener but he was flawless in the second half. He won every single header that came his way. Hayden Carter, alongside him, was equally terrific.

Lewis Travis played the pantomime villain so well. Considering he was booked after 35 minutes, he did tremendously well not to overstep the mark or risk getting sent off. Yet he was still everywhere, biting into tackles. He was made for games like this and boy they have missed him.

That character and spirit was certainly lacking towards the end of Jon Dahl Tomasson's reign. Eustace has got his teeth into this group, added the necessary experience and suddenly, they look like a team you can trust again.

They were really on the ropes in the first 20 minutes and a goal down. It looked an uphill task to swing the momentum but Weimann's stunner did just that. It was not just the manner of the goal but the timing that was so important.

That's Championship pedigree for you.

Owen Beck, take a bow

Wow, talk about a baptism of fire. Championship debut, three days after joining, away in the East Lancs derby.

It's been some week for Owen Beck. Local media interviewed him on Thursday and he came across as measured, confident and assured. If he played as well as he spoke, aged 22, I thought Rovers might have a player on their hands.

I was right. He started a little bit nervy in the opening 15 minutes, I think Burnley targeted him which was natural. But as the game went on, he grew into it and stood up to a really tough test.

He wasn't a weak link for Rovers and that's the best compliment I can pay him. Young full-backs are often great going forward but switch off defensively. None of that from him. He didn't get bullied and he repaid the faith shown in him by Eustace.

Harry Pickering is a reliable, consistent performer for Rovers but he might finally have some genuine competition for his left-back berth. Both players will be all the better for it.

Eight is great

To have two wins and two draws, away at tricky ground, is a fantastic haul for Rovers. I felt they had an opportunity to get points on the board in August but they've really stepped up.

I have been pleasantly surprised by how attacking they've been. I have more retrospective respect for the job Eustace did last season having seen how adaptable he can be.

Perhaps naively, I worried whether he was just a safety-first coach but we've seen in this opening month that, in the right environment, he will take the handbrake off. He had to tighten them up, as first priority, last season or they'd have gone down.

Even after a heroic defensive display at Turf Moor, he was critical of his team's use of possession in the final third. He's showing ambition and setting high standards which should be music to Rovers fans' ears.

The fans are fully behind him now and they should be. In six months, he really installed a new mentality to this group and showed that he does have the nerve to play attacking football whilst maintaining a base level that means they're hard to beat.