Yuki Ohashi struck in the last minute of stoppage time for Blackburn to give new boss Michael O'Neill a 1-0 win over Preston in his first home game in charge of the club.
The Japanese forward, introduced as a 67th-minute substitute, gave the hosts much-needed impetus in a Lancashire derby they contested keenly, but struggled to find the attacking touch.
They continued to push and in the fifth minute of added time, Ohashi planted a header beyond David Cornell to notch his seventh and arguably most important goal of the campaign.
That earned Blackburn back-to-back wins for the first time since November and crucially moved them six points clear of danger.
Preston's three-game unbeaten run came to an end and although Alfie Devine twice grazed the woodwork, they did not make their early dominance count as they missed the chance to move into the play-off places.
The visitors started well and Devine's second-minute corner hit the top of the crossbar, though it did not seem to worry Balasz Toth.
The Hungarian shot-stopper was brought into action in the 10th minute when Lewis Dobbin was afforded far too much space to get a shot away through a flurry of Blackburn bodies, but Toth parried smartly before the defence cleared.
O'Neill's men settled into the game and ought to have taken the lead when Eiran Cashin swung a left-wing cross on to the head of Moussa Baradji, but the midfielder glanced wide from six yards.
Dobbin and Devine were clearly the dangermen for Preston and they combined when the former's deftly-flicked pass set the latter on his way to engineer a left-foot drive which forced Toth into a sprawling near-post save.
Rovers created another glorious chance from a sumptuous cross, this time from Baradji when delivering from the right towards Mathias Jorgensen who could not get a telling touch.
Devine hit the woodwork with a cross for the second time in the game in the 65th minute when his curling free-kick evaded everyone and clipped the far post.
Rovers then went close twice in quick succession when Jorgensen's angled shot was palmed away by Cornell and Baradji latched on to a half-clearance, but thundered just over.
Baradji missed an even better chance five minutes later when he failed to convert Jorgensen's pinpoint cross from six yards, with Ohashi arguably better placed to convert.
Clearly Blackburn's best spell of the game, they went close again 10 minutes from time when Ohashi glanced a header goalwards which Cornell needed to parry.
They finally broke through in the last minute of stoppage time when Cashin whipped over a left-wing cross to the far post, which Ohashi expertly guided back across Cornell for the crucial win.
The managers
Blackburn's Michael O'Neill:
"We had to dig deep. I thought second half, we shaded the game. I thought first half, probably Preston shaded the first half, started the game better than us and then we got into the game from maybe 20 minutes in.
"Second half, we did a lot of good things, we had other opportunities we possibly could have done a little better with.
"The game looked like it was going to drift to a 0-0, but you dig in, keep doing what you do and obviously Yuki comes up with a fantastic header and it's a great way to win the game.
"The important thing was if you can win a game in that way, it gives real belief to your team because they've probably not had that many, come out of tight games like that on the wrong end of the scoreline so that all helps in building confidence and belief in the group."
Preston's Paul Heckingbottom:
"Anger is the real emotion, I think. Yes, we should have taken a point there. Nature of that and, yes, it's anger.
"You can take losing, but I'm disappointed. The game itself, we had a feeling Michael would go five at the back, he changed it second half. We picked a team that would play well against that.
"I felt we had control of the game in spells without looking the threat we wanted. We might have had territory, we might have had set-plays, we might have had moments where we controlled the ball, but not enough chances at the end of that.
"If (Andrew) Hughesy hadn't had to come off, we would have changed it up again and gave them something different to do at the back because we played in front of them too often. First half as well, but we did carry a threat. Second half, we played in front of them too much."
