LESS than 24 hours after the club announced losses of more than £40m Jordan Rhodes gave a timely reminder of why he remains priceless for Rovers.

The Ewood Park accounts would not be as concerning had Venky’s not blocked Hull City’s £10m-plus bid for Rhodes in August.

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But if their decision did not make financial sense then Saturday’s events offered fresh proof that it was well-founded from a football point of view.

Rhodes’ brace of first-half goals hauled him up to nine for the season and 62 in just 118 appearances in the famous blue and white halved shirt.

It is a remarkable record that means he would not be short of suitors if Rovers chose to cash in next month.

All the noises coming out of India is that Venky’s will again give short shrift to any offers they may receive for Rhodes.

That can only be good news as there no question Rovers stand a better chance of winning promotion with him than without him.

This, however, was no one-man show.

On any other day Ryan Tunnicliffe, Jason Lowe, Shane Duffy, Ben Marshall, Corry Evans or Alex Baptiste could have prised the man-of-the-match award away from the two-goal hero.

Rovers had come in for criticism after their performance at Brentford, criticism Gary Bowyer felt was over the top seeing it was the first time his side had suffered back-to-back defeats since March.

A fair point but there was a real need to see visible improvements in key areas of their game.

Credit where credit is due, then, because we certainly saw them in a win that was as comfortable as it was welcome.

There was the fast start and first goal that everyone had been calling for and a first clean sheet in nine matches.

But what was most pleasing about Rovers’ display was how they played without ball.

Charlton came into the game on the back of a three-match unbeaten away run and having lost only three times in the league all season. You would never have guessed.

They were woeful, particularly in a first half when they could and should have been blown away.

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But it must be stressed the Addicks were made to look worse than they are by their fired-up and well-prepared opponents.

If Rovers’ pressing at Griffin Park one week earlier was sluggish then it was relentless here.

Hunting in packs, they forced Charlton into mistake after mistake, the first of which resulted in the sixth-minute opener.

Shane Duffy was still up from a set-piece when he caught Jordan Cousins in possession 40 yards from his own goal.

The ball broke to Ben Marshall and he showed great awareness to slip in Rhodes who did the rest with a coolly taken side-footed finish low past Nick Pope into the bottom corner.

Marshall, given license to roam at the tip of a reworked midfield four, had already set Rhodes up for a chance that Pope turned past the post.

The striker is never more than dangerous than when playing on the shoulder of the last defender and Rovers boss Bowyer’s cleverly constructed system certainly allowed him to do that.

Rhodes’ second goal in the 19th minute was the result of a good old-fashioned punt downfield.

Goalkeeper Jason Steele’s long kick was headed on by top-scorer Gestede into the path of his strike-partner who outmuscled Tal Ben Haim then had the desire to beat Pope to the ball before nudging it over the line.

At that stage it could have been any score and Lowe was denied a spectacular third goal for Rovers by the Addicks goalkeeper.

It would have been a fitting reward for Lowe. The midfielder was excellent on his first start since August 30.

It came as major disappointment, then, when he came off in the 49th minute with pain in the same foot in which he suffered a fracture.

While Gestede blazed over a Baptiste cross soon after, Rovers lost their momentum a little and Charlton’s top-scorer Igor Vetokele went close with a header for the second time on the afternoon.

Bowyer sensed as much and his introduction of David Dunn and Josh King with 14 minutes to play was perfectly timed.

Dunn, in particular, impressed, instigating a lovely move that ended with the tireless Tunnicliffe seeing a 20-yard curler pushed around the post by Pope.

The evergreen midfielder then played a delightful ball through to the fit-again King.

His searing pace took him away from the Addicks backline but with the posts in sight, he smashed the ball wide.