On The Road
PROTESTS ON HOLD AS EWOOD PARK PREPARES FOR ROVERS’ RETURN
Silence is golden. Well, there was no chance of that at ewood Park yesterday as two rivals going for promotion from league One fought out a fiercely contested derby.
Despite the presence of live television and a noon kick- off on a Sunday, a season’s best crowd of 16,142 watched these two famous lancashire clubs and recent Premier league neighbours battle out a draw.
The positive chants of ‘We’re Blackburn Rovers, we’re on our way back’ were soon ringing around the Ronnie clayton Stand as Rovers racked up a two-goal lead.
The silence concerns Venky’s, the club’s muchmaligned owners. no one mentions them any more.
And, after years of poor results and poor management which culminated in this proud old club losing their championship status last May, maybe that’s not a bad thing.
For once, their words are ringing true — and no Rovers fan is complaining if a promotion charge that is hurtling along at an average of just over two points a game is maintained over the next 10 games as they sit five points clear at the top.
in a rare statement issued after the club’s relegation last May, Venky’s said: ‘notwithstanding this temporary setback, we are confident that the collective efforts of the team, under Tony Mowbray’s leadership, will enable the club to achieve promotion back to the championship next season.
‘We have all witnessed the events of recent years, where teams have been relegated but have turned their clubs around and emerged stronger, and we are determined to see Blackburn Rovers do the same.’
At the time of relegation, supporters urged Venky’s to sell up. Mark Fish, chairman of Blackburn Rovers Action Group, said: ‘The club have been in terminal decline since 2010. Until the owners realise they don’t want their unwanted baby any more and seek new ownership for the club it won’t improve.’
John Murray, chairman of the Blackburn Rovers Supporters’ Trust, added: ‘We are in a spiral of decline with owners who seem to have lost interest in their toy.
‘The whole thing is a shambles. We all wanted them to survive but, even if they did stay up this miserable existence would have continued.’
The fact that such a footballing man as Mowbray agreed to stay on as manager to lead the promotion charge back to the championship suggests there is some much-needed stability back at ewood Park after so many changes under Venky’s in the last few years.
Mowbray did so even after the departure of director of football and operations Paul Senior, his sole point of contact with the club’s management, who only took over in January.
Although in Steve Waggott, his chief executive, he has a conduit of continuity having worked with the same man at coventry city.
Thankfully for Rovers and their supporters, the pleas of the masses have been answered in much-needed investment in the squad. Reassured by a meeting with ith th the owners i in india in the summer enough to sign a one-year extension to his contract, Mowbray has helped to rebuild a club that had become a toxic wasteland.
‘When i went over there, i felt their support and they were happy to put some trust in me that i wasn’t going to waste their money, be frivolous and demand this and that,’ said Mowbray.
‘it was about whether i had a plan but i think they had seen some shoots last season.
‘They felt we had a plan and we did have a management team that had some ideas and thoughts on how to play and what was the best way forward.’
even allowing for a bobbly pitch that was hardly conducive to the sort of smooth passing football that is the hallmark of Mowbray’s teams, there is a swagger about b t Blackburn Bl kb not t seen for many years. And if there is a new-found belief in the team, then no one is showing it more than Bradley Dack.
The 24-year- old playmaker cost £750,000 in the summer when he joined from Gillingham and is recognised by many as the stand-out player in league One this season.
Yesterday, Dack outmuscled nathan Byrne, the Wigan right back, after lobbing the ball over him and then produced a sublime reverse pass to put in team-mate elliott Bennett for Rovers’ sumptuous second goal after Adam Armstrong, the striker on loan from newcastle, had given them the lead.
Wigan deservedly fought back to earn a point courtesy of second-half goals from Michael Jacobs and Max Power.
But there is no doubting Rovers are on their way back.