Huddersfield Town's Alex Smithies finally put up the shutters against Jordan Rhodes – then predicted a Premier League future for his good friend and former teammate.
Rhodes netted in both his outings against Town last season after leaving for Blackburn in an £8m deal.
And the 23-year-old Scotland international had scored doubles in both his previous Ewood outings as Rovers put five past Barnsley and scored four against Bolton.
But he was blanked as Town ended a run of five successive away defeats to Rovers to claim a hard-earned point.
“He’s scored past me the last few times, so it was good to keep him out,” said Smithies.
“He’s one of my best mates, and I know how ruthless he is about scoring.
“As a keeper, I always want clean sheets, and it’s one for me this time. I’m due one against Jordan, I think!”
Rhodes has six to his credit so far this season, and Smithies added: “He’s a goal machine, a natural-born scorer, so for us to keep him at bay is really pleasing.
“I would imagine clubs in the Premier League will be looking at him week in, week out.
“He’s someone who scores so many goals and he’s done it consistently for the last few years.
“I think he’ll score goals for whoever he plays for so I’d like to see him in the Premier League. I think he deserves it.”
It was a second clean sheet in three games and a third of the campaign for Smithies.
“It was quite a quiet game for me,” he admitted. “I don’t think I had many saves to make, so that’s always nice. The easier the game I’ve got, the better the team are doing.”
Smithies’ opposite number Jake Kean said: “You can’t keep scoring four or five goals every game.
“Teams will look at our performances and work on things.
“They’ll want to come to Ewood Park and stop us from playing and attacking. I think Huddersfield did that.
“Their gameplan was to stop our build-up play, and they were always going to be a tough team to beat.”
