Emmanuel Dennis sent off on Blackburn home debut in draw against Norwich City

It wasn’t a good home debut for Emmanuel Dennis at Blackburn Rovers, as the Nigerian striker was sent off in their 1-1 draw against Norwich City in the EFL Championship.

The 27-year-old joined Blackburn on a six-month loan from Nottingham Forest after not playing for over a year. Since moving to Ewood Park, he has mainly been a fringe player, working on getting back to full fitness. However, his home debut lasted less than 30 minutes before he was shown a red card in front of the home crowd.

Both teams struggled to create many chances on a warm afternoon in Blackburn. Valerien Ismael, who recently became the new coach of Rovers, brought Dennis on in the 62nd minute, hoping he would spark some attack. Unfortunately, Dennis made his mark for the wrong reasons.

Five minutes after coming on, Dennis was booked for a foul on Norwich’s Benjamin Chrisene. Then, in the 85th minute, he was sent off for another foul on Chrisene. A low cross came into the box, and Dennis tried to clear the ball but ended up crashing into the Norwich defender. Referee Leigh Doughty immediately showed him a second yellow card, leading to a red.

This is the second time Dennis has been sent off against Norwich, the first being during his time at Watford.

Despite being down to 10 men, Blackburn fought back after Norwich took the lead in the 90th minute through Croatian forward Ante Crnac. In the 96th minute, Andreas Weimann scored a header to rescue a point for Blackburn.

The result leaves Blackburn in 7th place in the EFL Championship, level on points with 6th-placed West Bromwich Albion.