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The 140th Lancashire derby ended in an exciting 2-2 draw as Blackburn Rovers fought back from two goals down to deny Bolton Wanderers a valuable win at Ewood Park.

The Trotters took a 2-0 lead into half-time thanks to goals from Matthew Taylor and Kevin Davies before the home side hit back in fine fashion through Stephen Warnock and Benni McCarthy.

The South African made amends for an earlier missed penalty before Ryan Nelsen missed the chance to guarantee his side three points in the final minute with a header against the post.

The draw saw Sam Allardyce continue his fine start to 2009 with Rovers as he denied his old side the win they needed to climb clear of the releagtion zone.

As it is, both teams lie perilously close to the drop on 22 (Rovers) and 24 points (Wanderers) respectively although Blackburn do have a game in hand.

Blackburn started the match in high spirits with Jason Roberts brought back into the team at the expense of Roque Santa Cruz. Brett Emerton and Andre Ooijer also made the starting XI as Allardyce looked for a fourth consecutive clean sheet.

The Ewood Park side had won two in four and knew that a win would see them two points clear of their closest neighbours and away from the relegation zone.

Gary Megson made two changes to the side that lost to Manchester United with Kevin Nolan back in after serving a suspension and new signing Frenchman Sebastien Puygrenier making his debut in defence. A horrible beginning to the year meant that they were looking for their first win in five Premier League games.

Making his 300th career league start, Taylor opened the scoring on the quarter hour for Bolton by latching on to an Ariza Makukula cross and beating Paul Robinson at his far post despite the attentions of Ooijer.

Davies doubled the lead against his old club with a shot a little over 15 minutes later after Robinson had parried his first effort.

Blackburn looked down and out but the half-time break brought respite and a comeback was on the cards when Warnock fired home for a tight angle 20 minutes into the second period.

And three minutes later when substitute Santa Cruz was felled by Jussi Jaaskelainen an equaliser looked imminent. But the Finn saved excellently to his right to deny the striker and got up quickly to prevent Keith Andrews from slotting in the rebound.

Despite the setback, Rovers kept on pushing and were rewarded for their efforts four minutes from time when McCarthy took advantage of some poor defending following a scramble in the box to poke past Jaaskelainen for 2-2.

And three points went begging in the final minute for the home side as Nelsen powered a header against the foot of the post.

Svein Clouston / Eurosport