Rovers on edge of setting new record of wins
BLUE-EYED BOYS
IFOLLOW most Football League clubs on Twitter and was amused a couple of Saturdays ago when Northampton Town’s feed issued the following message.
‘The North gravel car park will be out of use today but the South gravel car park is open as usual’.
I’ve actually been to the Sixfields Stadium to report on a Stanley game a few years ago and it was as prosaic and uninspiring an experience as that tweet hinted.
Pretty much your identikit, flat-pack small lowerleague ground plonked down in a large soulless expanse which has not quite become the hub of commerce some starryeyed councillor once envisaged – at least this weekend it will resound to the noisy throb of another remarkable sell-out Rovers following looking to cheer their side to the very brink of a notable historical landmark.
A seventh consecutive league win would put us within one home game, against lowly Rochdale, of equalling the eight achieved by Howard Kendall’s 1979-80 Third Division promotion heroes who enjoyed the experience so much that after seeing the sequence ended by a shock home draw with Exeter they promptly won another six on the bounce.
One of the other main similarities with that side of 37 years ago is how assured Rovers are looking away from home.
Whereas Kendall’s virtually-inpenetrable unit favoured the 1-0 scoreline, Tony Mownray’s team seem to have the firepower to blow teams away on their own midden without the odd leaking of a goal here and there causing much inconvenience.
So much so, in fact, that Rovers seem hell-bent on recreating some of the circumstances and conditions of an away match at Ewood. After another indifferent first-half last Saturday illuminated only by the moment of glorious serendipity which saw Leon Best hilariously achieve what he had singularly failed to do during the woebegone period of his employment here and score at Ewood – what on earth was the ‘you-haveone-job’ tannoy announcer doing missing the chance to share that, a lot didn’t realise it was him? – Rovers effectively conceded possession to Charlton for the entireity of the second half.
Again, a pitiful dearth of finishing ability or finalpass decision making meant the Londoners became yet another side to leave Blackburn without at least the point their overall display possibly merited. But Rovers are a dangerous animal playing on the counter and after Craig Conway had fluffed one set of lines, the clinching goal set up by Nuttall’s perseverance and put home by a man who does know how to accept a chance on a plate led to celebrations which hint that this club has at least found its soul as far as team spirit and unconditional love from its loyal fans are concerned.
David Raya – terrific again and unless there’s an outstanding candidate I haven’t seen surely destined for the League One team of the season – dashing the length of the field to the Blackburn End to celebrate securing the precious points may not quite erase the memory of Scott Arfield and colleagues making a similar sprint the opposite way but even for an old cynic who tires of elaborate celebrations and shirt-kissing gestures it was a touching moment.
If we do perform with our usual elan at Northampton it will be a little bit of history in itself. Obviously we’ve never played at Sixfields before but nor had we ever won at the quaint old County (cricket) Ground in two league visits more than half a century ago.
The first was in The Cobblers’ only season ever in the top-flight, which was also our last season in it for a good while.
They came all the way up from the fourth and back down again in seven seasons, and in the illfated 1965-66 campaign they managed to knock us out of the League Cup at Ewood before losing 6-1 here just before Christmas.
George Jones scored a hat-trick and after a dire start to the season accentuated by a polio outbreak locally which prevented any home games being played until September it briefly looked as if we may escape the bottom two.
The return game at Wantage Road less than a month later saw us beaten 2-1, George Sharples of all people netting. Both sides went down in May, Rovers with just 20 points to Town’s 33.
Less than a year later in Division Two we lost there again by 2-1, Barrie Hole our scorer before winning the return 3-0 at Ewood condemning Northampton to the lower divisions for the next 50 years.
Someone had taken note of a decent centreforward they had there though as in February 1968 we paid them a few quid for one Donnon Martin, a centre-forward so skinny and pigeon-chested he deceptively looked as if a strong wind might blow him over.
He remains one of my favourite Rovers of all time and I was devastated to learn he’d died a few years ago, his passing scandalously unacknowledged by our club.
In other news this week we’ve appointed, as I revealed we would be doing a few weeks ago, a new chief executive officer Steve Waggott.
I know nothing about him and judging by the sweeping range of speculation and conjecture, neither does anyone else.
I hope he’s good for us and wish him every success.
A merry and peaceful Christmas to all Rovers fans, readers and football supporters of any stripe.