No glory but a worthy effort
BLUE-EYED BOY’S BLACKBURN VIEW
WHO wants to walk up Wembley Way for an FA Cup Final with no twin towers anyway?
Well, me actually, but that’s the seventies, eightirs, nineties, 2000s and 2010s gone without one. W’ll have to hope the 2020’s smile more kindly upon us but we’re edging ever closer to Zager and Evans territory, never mind Smallwood and Evans.
You’d have to be even tighter than I am not to consider you’d had your money’s worth from that cup tie, even if you only decided to go late on and paid twenty quid instead of ten.
Newcastle were possibly the worthy winners at the end but over the two games Rovers gave an outstanding account of themselves. Only in extra time with a couple of stardust substitutions did the Geordies look a class apart and while it may be a job for Mowbray to put a side together on Saturday after so many finished sick, wounded and plain old jiggered, Rovers have every reason to be pleased and proud of the way they’ve begun 2019.
Saturday’s two late goals at Millwall were a real bonus after a mindmumbingly turgid first 88 minutes but even as the clock ran down before those strikes I was quietly content with a point and a clean sheet provided we avoided any late calamities - by no means a given in the light of recent farragoes.
But, completely out of character with what had preceded them, Rovers produced two moves worthy of winning a much better game.
Travis and Armstrong deserve the greatest of credit for the first with Nuttall perhaps fortuitous to claim what looked to be on its way in as an OG to start with. I like lucky strikers though and Nuttall confirmed a theory that I’ve put forward in this column before that he is currently secondchoice centre fotward on merit. Travis was certainly higher up the field instigating and creating than many of our midfielders ever dare to be.
Bennett’s killer pass for the second and Armstrong’s confident finish - again, not a formality for a lad who’s struggled a bit in that regard - are the sort of moments which will have made every penny and mile of a long day seem well worth it.
Lenihan’s dominance and Rodwell’s assurance were perhaps acheived with a little less difficulty than they might have been had Millwall’s batteringram Elliott stayed on but it was an impressive display to restrict the home side to two fairly tame efforts all game.
It was never going to be as easy as Newcastle, depleted side or not, came bursting out of the ranks at a far higher tempo than at St James Park, making a mockery of suggestions that Rafa had paid Rovers a disservice by rotating his squad in the first game.
To go two behind so early was disappointing but to show the character to claw the deficit back by half-time was deeply impressive. Newcastle fans were wondering when was the occasion three of their Academy products last bagged in a game when Armstrong added another and it was no shock when Lenihan, after one powerful warning, thundered his header home from a corner.
Brereton ought to have put Rovers ahead before early withdrawal ended another curiously underwhelming display and Dack, ill but inevitably thrown on eventually, was way short of his usual standards particularly in dragging a golden extratime opportunity wide.
The quality of Newcastle’s attacking substitutions Atsu and Perez showed the gulf between even a struggling Premier League outfit and a decent Championship side and while the vital third goal was down to linesman error and the inexplicable absence of VAR at a stadium which has staged two decades of Premiership and European football from that momenton Rovers were out on their feet.
Those who feel Graham can only last sixty minutes watched him do that twice and even the ball of energy Travis looked to be spent towards the end.
All three replays on the night were won by the away side, curiously, and now Mowbray can focus solely on the league.
It doesn’t take long for the silly talk to start after a couple of wins and while we stand six points from sixth place, there are an awful lot of sides above us we have to do better than to challenge for the playoffs. It’s nice to make the play-offs but there’s nothing for the three sides who miss out in them and I think it would take some turnaround to get to a stage where we’d overcome the likes of Derby, Middlesbrough and West Brom at the death.
I think most will demure that we aren’t ready for that and to spend foolishly in order to pursue such an unlikely goal at this stage could imperil our FFP standing considerably.
Let’s take it game by game starting with Paul Lambert’s Ipswich at Ewood on Saturday. They have shown signs of green shoots and the former Rovers boss will look to be busy in the window, already securing James Collins, Simon Dawkins and two-time Ewood reject but good egg and on his day far better player than we ever saw, Alan Judge. I wish him well at Portman Road but just have a jog around and treat it as a fitness exercise on the weekend, Alan, no 30-yard screamers please mate.
Those three points at the New Den certainly give the table a healthier look and it would take a remarkable slump to get dragged into trouble.
Just enjoy the remainder of the season. I miss Saturday celebrating my 60th birthday abroad but most games at Ewood, excepting maybe Millwall, Brentfrd, Rothetham, QPR have provided rich entertainment if they haven’t always ended with the outcome we hoped for.
There’ve been seasons not far in the past where you’ve despaired of where the next decent game would come from. I recall my cousin, a lifer if ever there was one, telling me in the dullest days of 201516 that for the first time since the 1950s he’d actually found something else to do rather than attend a game he was available and had a season ticket for.
Mowbray has rid us of that kind of disillusionment and though I’m looking forward to Bilbao and a personal landmark, I’m just as much looking forward to Hull at home a week later!