Valerien Ismael salutes ‘special’ Moussa Baradji after brace rescues Blackburn

Valerien Ismael hailed Moussa Baradji as a “special player” after the French midfielder’s brace helped Blackburn rescue a 2-2 draw against Charlton.

Baradji was injured when he joined on loan from Swiss side Yverdon-Sport in the summer but is now showing his true worth.

His contribution was vital here after Charlie Kelman’s quickfire first-half brace – a close-range volley and penalty – had threatened to condemn Rovers to a second successive defeat.

Baradji headed his first Blackburn goal just before the break and completed the comeback 13 minutes on time, timing his run to perfection to convert Lewis Miller’s cross.

Blackburn are without a win in five, but boss Ismael was full of praise for Baradji and his side’s character.

He said: “We knew that we’ve got a special player with him. That’s why we took the risk in the summer because we know that he’s worth it.

“We’re just pleased that he was able, since he came back, to have 100 per cent ability in training sessions and in games.

“So we build him up throughout the games for one month, it works well and now you see clearly it’s going up and up.

“I’m very pleased now he has time to recover properly. It will be good for him now to have a breather before the next Championship game.

“It’s exactly what we knew from him. His physicality, his capability to play box to box and he’s able to score goals and today he got the breakthrough.”

On the result, Ismael added: “Great mentality to come back into the game. It’s a good point.

“If you compare the Sheffield Wednesday point (a 0-0 draw on December 29) and this one, that one felt different.”

Charlton ended a two-match away losing run, but boss Nathan Jones cut a frustrated figure, bemoaning conceding “really poor” goals.

He said: “Wasn’t a good game. No team had any control, but after taking a 2-0 lead we expect to win that game.

“The goal just before half-time lifted them. Poor from us, turned the ball over, allowed them to get to the byline, clip a ball in, we don’t pick up. There’s only one in the box, we have three and he gets a free header and scores and that’s frustrating.

“Second goal is really frustrating. We lose Miles (Leaburn), he has to come off. We can’t make a sub so we’re down to 10 men, we have the ball in the corner, we clip it into their keeper’s hands.

“They go up the other end and score from a cutback. These are things we normally defend really well, stuff we work on. So it’s really, really frustrating.

“I’m really disappointed because the goals were really, really poor.”