BLACKBURN turned in a vintage performance to destroy Sheffield Wednesday and virtually assure their Premiership survival. A glorious Ewood Park night turned into a personal triumph for full-back Graeme Le Saux.
Le Saux, dropped at Arsenal on Saturday for poor form but retained in the England squad, returned to his brilliant best.
Blackburn made a nonsense of their fight against relegation to take Wednesday apart.
Rovers were ahead courtesy of Henning Berg after just five minutes. Tim Sherwood's free-kick was headed back across goal by Chris Sutton and the Norwegian defender applied the finishing touch with his head from inside the six-yard box.
Rovers roared forward and Garry Flitcroft was only a yard or two wide with a spectacular diving header before both Le Saux and Colin Hendry had shots saved.
Blackburn pushed 2-0 ahead on 23 minutes. Billy McKinlay's cross was headed back by Sutton and Sherwood controlled it on his chest before flicking the ball past Kevin Pressman with the outside of his right foot.
Six minutes from half-time Blackburn went three up when Le Saux made a cross field run, took a return off Sutton and then clipped a right-foot shot beyond Pressman.
Rovers lost Sutton through injury at the interval but it failed to affect their rhythm.
Pedersen headed across goal from the back post, in the 58th minute, after Sherwood had produced a teasing shot and Flitcroft hammered home a volley for his second strike in successive matches.
Blinker was fouled by Flitcroft on the left-hand edge of the box and Italian Benito Carbone converted from the spot.
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