Bournemouth 0-2 Blackburn Rovers - Ben Brereton Diaz strikes as Rovers down Cherries

Bournemouth's stuttering form continued as the second-placed Cherries lost 2-0 to fellow Championship high-fliers Blackburn.

Rovers - who stay in fourth place - took the lead somewhat against the run of play as top scorer Ben Brereton Diaz's shot from a tight angle came off the bar and went in off Ben Pearson.

Jan Paul van Hecke's powerful header from Joe Rothwell's corner midway through the second half sealed the three points for Rovers.

Brereton Diaz almost made it 3-0 with six minutes to go but Mark Travers saved well low down.

Scott Parker's side, who have now won just once in seven games, are now only two points behind leaders Fulham while Rovers are four points behind the Cherries and one off third-placed West Bromwich Albion.

Blackburn have now won their past four games without conceding a goal and taken 22 points from a possible 27 in their past nine matches.

Brereton Diaz almost put the visitors ahead after 11 minutes when he shot over from the edge of the box having seen team-mate Scott Wharton block Steve Cook's shot moments earlier.

But the in-form Chile striker made no mistake soon after when he reacted quickest after Travers' excellent save from Darragh Lenihan's header - now the Championship second highest top scorer's 17th goal of the season.

The Cherries twice almost levelled before the break - nine minutes after going behind Aynsley Pears produced a good low save to deny Ryan Christie before the Rovers keeper denied Dominic Solanke in first-half stoppage time.

Scott Parker replaced Pearson with Emiliano Marcondes at half-time as Bournemouth upped their intensity as Solanke and Christie went close early in the second period.

But Rovers recovered, Travers saving well from John Buckley before denying Brereton Diaz one-on-one shortly before the second goal.

The hosts struggled to make any sort of impact as the half continued - although Pears had to be at his best late on when he palmed away a Marcondes free-kick before saving an effort from Christie.

Bournemouth head coach Scott Parker told BBC Radio Solent:

"I've got complaints I suppose with the first goal. There's two players blatantly offside. That's a big call. And then two big chances in the first half - Ryan Christie and Dominic Solanke - and that probably shapes the game a little bit.

"We tried to probe a very well-organised and disciplined side in Blackburn that looked to counter and they had some success with that, we need to improve that.

"We are where we are at this moment in time. We're in a bad spell, I can't dress this up as any more.

"We need to understand, which we do, that we need to react in the right way and get to the team we were and the results we had only four or five games ago."

Blackburn Rovers manager Tony Mowbray told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"A really hard-fought, hard-worked for victory, but they believe they can give anybody a game. We've said that consistently.

"It's a great result for us. We rode our luck a little bit at times, but you need a bit of that in football.

"We knew we had a tough football match against some real top players, but we are capable.

"That's four on the bounce with four clean sheets,. The team have clicked into place."