Derby County boss John Eustace haunted his old club Blackburn again as he masterminded his third win over them in just under a year to compound Rovers' relegation worries.

Hayden Carter headed Blackburn in front before former Rovers striker Ben Brereton Diaz, Matt Clarke and Rhian Brewster netted for rampant Derby as they scored three in the second half.

The rousing win rekindles Derby's play-off push after they had lost three of their previous four games.

The result also underlines the tough task Michael O'Neill has at Blackburn, having now lost his past two games, despite taking the lead, after winning his opening two matches.

The gulf in experience between the two sides at Pride Park was vast and Blackburn faded horribly in the second half.

Derby's Brereton Diaz, Sammie Szmodics, Lewis Travers and Dion Sanderson had made a total of 544 Blackburn appearances and scored 97 goals between them.

O'Neill's Blackburn starting XI had a combined 408 appearances and 33 goals for Rovers.

Brereton Diaz saw his shot saved by Balazs Toth before the Rovers goalkeeper denied Patrick Agyemang from a narrow angle on the left.

Blackburn had their moments and Yuki Ohashi turned Clarke in the box, only to drag his shot across goal, before Yuri Ribeiro had an effort saved by Derby goalkeeper Josh Vickers.

The visitors then took the lead on the stroke of half-time. Travers conceded a stupid free-kick outside his own box on the left and Ribeiro, who was making his first start since December, swung over a great delivery for Carter to head into the far corner in first-half stoppage time for his first goal since May 2023.

It should have been 2-0 just after the break when Andri Gudjohnsen chested the ball down and blazed wide.

Brereton Diaz finished off a fine Derby move to equalise on 55 minutes. Derry John Murkin pulled the ball back to Brereton Diaz, who took a touch to control the ball before firing home his fifth Rams goal of the season.

Derby went in front when ex-Rams defender Eiran Cashin was at fault and Szmodics pulled Brewster's cross back across goal for Clarke to score his second of the season.

Brewster secured victory when he added a third eight minutes from time, heading home Murkin's left-wing cross from close range.

Derby boss John Eustace told BBC Radio Derby:

"To get to this points tally with 11 games to go, I think it's a great achievement from where we were.

"It's been a lot of hard work to get to this point, but the season's certainly not over. Now, we've got to really enjoy the next 11 games and see how far we can go.

"I think it shows great progression throughout the club, on and off the field. Obviously, we spoke about how it was going to be, we felt it was going to be a slow start, which it was, but we knew where we'd want to get to and we knew with the right process, we'd get there.

"There's been a lot injured players, a lot of players going out, a lot of players coming in, so to get up to speed was really important. You can see the progression in the season up to now and we've found a way to get results."

Blackburn manager Michael O'Neill told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"We played very well in the first half, I thought. We dealt with the long balls, picked up a lot of second balls and we played some really good football in the first half. We went in 1-0 ahead and I think we were deserving of that.

"Second half, the squad isn't strong, we don't have depth in our squad. And the team that finishes the game is not as strong as the team that starts the game. That's with the injuries we have, the players that we have missing.

"We have players coming in, who haven't played for a while, and we have to manage them through the game, so that's a challenge.

"But we need to develop durability, both individually and collectively. I think as a team, we need to be more durable and we weren't able to do that in the second half."