Andri Gudjohnsen's second brace in a week earned Blackburn a clinical 2-0 win over Wrexham.

The Icelandic striker's return from injury has coincided with an upturn in Rovers' results as goals in each half delivered a third win in five games that moves Tony Mowbray's side to within two points of the play-offs.

His first, a minute before half-time, was a poacher's finish as he swept in when Sam Morsy's shot was parried, and he made the game safe in the 79th minute with an emphatic strike from 12 yards for his eighth of the campaign.

It could have been more comfortable as Dapo Afolayan and Augustus Kargbo went close, and although Sam Smith headed wide for Wrexham with the score at 1-0, Phil Parkinson's men were outclassed as their winless away run stretched to four.

Rovers were a whisker away from hitting the front in the third minute when Jayden Fevrier cut in from the right and curled agonisingly wide of the far post.

Wrexham settled into the game with both Kieffer Moore and Callum O'Hare's shots blocked in the 14th minute as Rovers desperately tried to clear their lines.

Mowbray's men weathered that pressure and nearly gave the visitors a taste of their own medicine when Hayden Carter's outstretched foot diverted Todd Cantwell's 42nd-minute corner goalwards, only for the ball to strike the post before Anthony Patterson gratefully gathered.

There was no reprieve two minutes later when Moussa Baradji, making his first start of the season, wriggled away from two players and set up Sam Morsy, whose long-range effort was parried by Patterson straight to Gudjohnsen, who clinically swept into the bottom right corner.

Afolayan missed a glorious chance to double the advantage four minutes after the restart when Cantwell's pass sent him through one-on-one but Patterson spread himself brilliantly to repel the effort.

Wrexham started to create chances of their own as Matty James volleyed wide before O'Hare's 57th-minute cross found Smith, who glanced a free header wide of the far post.

They went close again 10 minutes later when Jacques Ekomie raided down the left and crossed for Moore, whose left-foot shot was blocked and fell to Joe Worrall, who hammered just wide of the left post from inside the area.

Rovers introduced Kargbo from the bench and his express pace almost brought a counter-attacking second as he burst forward from a Wrexham corner on to Cantwell's pass and drove low from the right, forcing Patterson to parry behind.

However, Gudjohnsen made the game safe 11 minutes from time with another deadly finish, latching on to Cantwell's pass 12 yards out before turning away from Worrall and burying into the top corner.

The managers

Blackburn head coach Tony Mowbray:

"Andri has started his career pretty well, I think, and it goes where it goes, hopefully with us trying to fire the goals for a season or two.

"People tell me he was scoring a lot of goals at the start of the last season and then he picked up an injury. So he's obviously very, very talented.

"He's got good movement, he strikes a brilliant ball, he's very physical and competitive. He's got all the attributes.

"I've just talked about humility in the dressing room and as long as he carries that with him everywhere, he's got a great chance to have a wonderful career.

"He's a great kid, nice lad, doesn't get carried away with anything. I can feel the steadiness of him, he's just scored quite a lot of goals, even before today. And there's no overconfident guy. He just gets on with his job. He's very humble and I like him a lot."

Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson:

"Difficult conditions for both sides. We were against it a bit in terms of elements first half.

"Obviously conceding just before the break was a setback but we still felt at half-time the game was there for us. But we couldn't produce the quality we needed.

"We've had 23 attempts but to only have one of those on target, we have to look at that.

"I've got to give Blackburn defenders credit because they blocked things, made 9-10 blocks. They defended crosses, they defended set plays. It was a combination of their good defending, but we couldn't find that clinical moment to get us back in the game and the game was separated on two moments.

"When we analyse the positions we got into, we got in enough good positions to have got something from the game but we just didn't produce the quality."