Positive result at QPR would brighten week
BLUE EYED BOY’S BLACKBURN VIEW
ISAID I wouldn’t write the column again after handing over the reins in summer.
Having realised that I wouldn’t be seeing Rovers play in the league until the Luton game (I actually saw the second half of the Boro home game after a cricket wash-out) and feeling that 60 was a grand age to finish, I asked Old Blackburnian at very short notice if he fancied taking over.
The fact that he’s on holiday this week at least enables me to thank him for doing just that so seamlessly and congratulate him on a blistering start, a coruscating run of imperious form which had Rovers emulated it, would see them three points clear at the top already.
As it stands we’re tenth as I write, possibly a place or two lower by the time you read this, which seems eminently respectable to me - I have no expectation of finishing anywhere other than mid table next Spring - though I will acknowledge that our early failure to set the pace has raised questions in unexpectedly exalted places with even Hyndburn’s MP expressing dissatisfaction in a series of disconcertingly anguished tweets.
The fact that Tony Mowbray stated on the eve of the big kick-off that the aim was a play-off place seemed to me a pretty standard soundbite of coach-speak probably echoed by pretty much every gaffer of a team which didn’t start as oddson favourites for an automatic spot since 1987, but I do appreciate we have a certain proportion of the kind of sub-sentient literalist mooks who took Bob Coars’s throwaway “I’ll see you in court,” crack and still go on about it as a serious and bona-fide threat to sue fans, among our following.
If we finish where we are now, I wouldn’t be too disappointed.
A place or two higher, real progress I feel, any lower than half way perhaps a twinge of disappointment.
I’ll be amazed if we ever get to the stage we did at times deep into last season when we were calculating the gap between ourselves and Rotherham without really expecting to get dragged into it.
I’ve had relegation to bother about all summer as some of you will know. My cricket team, Church, along with Accrington also of the parish, became the first two team relegated under the Lancashire League’s new twodivision system.
No sympathy cards please - we have signed a fine pro for 2020, will have lots of Hyndburn derbies and renew other old acquaintances and don’t have to travel to Rochdale and district more than once.
It will hopefully be a bit like Rovers’ League One promotion campaign.
But I can live with it if it isn’t, just as I can cope with another few seasons out of the Premier League. At my age I really think I’ve seen the best I’ll see between 1991 and 2012.
The chances of anything like that happening in the time I have left are slim, though I hope our daughters get a taste of it. I’ll settle for an FA Cup Final before I turn my toes up, although I realise I’m on my last few chances of that!
Funny enough, this week has brought us up against the first two FA Cup Finalists of my lifetime, Luton and Forest, who met in the 1959 final, just twelve months before our own last.
A point from six from a brace of home games was a poor return.
Luton didn’t buckle under our Geronimo opening salvo and picked us off with a regulation obstinate Championship performance.
You can always tell a turgid Ewood display when the main bone of contention is time taken to take set-pieces by the opposition.
On about three occasions we played short corners and ended up back on the edge of our own penalty area after seven passes which seemed more of a waste of our time to me than expecting the visitors to rush to take corners in the style of Benny Hill pursuing a short-skirted nurse.
Forest I thought was an improvement.
They are a fair side I never expected to dominate and to go so close to beating them I thought not only reflected well on an exciting final phase when they rather optimistically tried to shut up shop but also on the majority of the game in which I thought we matched them.
Tony hasn’t quite settled on the formula yet but that last few minutes, along with the first few against Luton, hinted at an exciting style which should put some opposition to the sword
Of course the next result puts the last one in context and we must really get a win at QPR or it’s been a bad week.
They have been in decent nick but it’s a happy hunting ground and the Blue Eyed family have decided on a rare long-distance away trip before the international break.
I expect globetrotting Blackburnian may require a stand-in later this season so you might not quite have heard the last of me.
I’d like to thank everyone who’s read the columns over the years (and editors Mervyn and Richard who a) gave me a job in the first place and b) allowed me free rein), especially those who’ve taken the trouble to get in touch and say they enjoyed them, and I wish genuine Accy lad Ian a long and successful association with The Observer.
Check out the excellent series of podcasts he produces on BRFCS.com too.