Ayegbeni Yakubu converted an injury-time penalty won by his own goalkeeper as 10-man Blackburn snatched a dramatic 3-3 draw at Wigan to keep its northwest rival at the bottom of the English Premier League on Saturday.
Blackburn keeper Paul Robinson ran upfield in the ninth minute of second-half stoppage time and was kicked in the face by David Jones as they competed for a corner.
Yakubu, who had earlier opened the scoring after just 68 seconds, scored the penalty to leave second-to-last Blackburn a point above Wigan.
''It's always difficult for an opposition defense when the keeper goes up there because everyone is marking man for man,'' said Blackburn manager Steve Kean.
Wigan rallied to take a 2-1 halftime lead through goals by Jordi Gomez and Gary Caldwell but Canadian forward Junior Hoilett leveled in the 60th despite the visitors having had David Dunn sent off for a second yellow card just after the restart.
Albert Crusat then thought he had earned Wigan only its second league win of the season before Yakubu's last-ditch equalizer.
Wigan coach Roberto Martinez was unhappy with Hoilett's goal, which came after midfielder Morten Gamst Pedersen appeared to play a corner kick to himself before sending over a cross that was deflected into Hoilett's path.
Yakubu had placed the ball down in the quadrant but didn't appear to touch the ball prior to Pedersen taking possession and dribbling toward the area.
''The decision is hard to take and hard to explain,'' Martinez said. ''It didn't seem to me that he (Yakubu) touched the ball, so how he (the referee) could allow that is really hurtful.
''The players don't know why it was allowed.''
Kean, who remains under severe pressure from the fans following Blackburn's stuttering start to the campaign, praised his players' mental strength after Dunn's dismissal.
''Once we went down to 10 men, I thought the lads were excellent,'' he said. ''We've had a lot of last-minute things (go against Rovers), so to go so well in the second half I think we deserved it.''
