Winning derbies is not about the quality of performance, it is about the result and Burnley fans will not be complaining after Zian Flemming earned them the points against their bitter rivals in a tight but underwhelming encounter. The significance of the victory was indicated at full-time as the players led raucous celebrations after boosting their promotion ambitions.

The dire nature of the first hour was forgotten, in the away end at least, when Flemming dived to head home Bashir Humphreys’s cross in front of 4,000 Burnley supporters. It was the first opening of note and the Dutchman should be commended for still being alert after having next to no involvement up to that point.

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“It’s been on my mind for the last 48 hours how big this game is and what it means to our supporters. The one thing I was thinking was we just need to win here today,” Burnley manager, Scott Parker, said.

“I wanted to win for our supporters and bragging rights at work on Monday morning. I’m just delighted we managed to do that.”

Even with half an hour to go, Flemming’s header felt like a winner. Rovers, who have not won an East Lancashire derby in the league since March 2010, were blunt, workmanlike and unable to test the best defence in the Championship. Apart from one goalmouth scramble after a corner James Trafford had a simple afternoon as Burnley completed a 13th unbeaten match in a row.

Burnley have kept 17 clean sheets and conceded nine goals in 26 matches. At the other end, they struggled to create anything in a match with three shots on target. Burnley work on a strategy where one chance is enough to settle the fixture, as Flemming proved, the eighth single-goal margin victory of their season.

“There’s something about this group, for such a young group, that when they need to go to places that are difficult, they seem to go there,” Parker said. “We had our one bit of quality; the game was always going to be defined in one moment.

“We executed a lovely cross and Flemming scores. After that, no denying that at times we’ve got to go to places that are very uncomfortable and to a man, this group, subs included, they go there.”

Ewood Park was sold out and no one inside would have expected it to be a spectacular fixture despite the teams aiming for promotion. They could not, however, have anticipated how poor the first half was with neither goalkeeper tested. Burnley’s Josh Cullen and Todd Cantwell exchanged late fouls to give hope of a blood and thunder derby, rather than the cautious affair it turned out to be.

Blackburn had problems in the final third, as Makhtar Gueye replaced the injured Yuki Ohashi, one of a number of key absentees. Gueye has as many red cards as he does league goals this season. His solitary dismissal came in the reverse fixture and that is still the most trouble he has caused Burnley this season after coming up against the impenetrable defensive pairing of CJ Egan-Riley and Maxime Estève.

The Senegalese striker did not lack eagerness but was not a concern to Burnley as he blustered without threatening in their fifth straight match without a victory, which has seen them drop out of the playoff places.

“The group of players have been outstanding for the first half of the season,” the Blackburn head coach, John Eustace, said. “We’ve been really stretched. If we can add two or three quality players to the group and we get the players back fit, then it gives us a real fighting chance to keep our push to get into the top six alive.”