Craig Conway believes good times are ahead at Blackburn
HARMONY at Ewood Park appeared impossible this time last year but new signing Craig Conway says Blackburn’s resurgence owes much to Gary Bowyer’s laidback approach.
Venky’s, the Indian chicken meat and pharmaceutical company who own Rovers, have won few admirers for their bulldozing approach in the last three-anda-half years.
From Sam Allardyce’s sacking and Steve Kean’s appointment as boss in 2010 to relegation from the Premier League and £37million worth of losses from the 2012/13 season – it’s hardly been a blueprint for success.
But the days when “global advisor” Shebby Singh was running the football side are over. Instead Rovers are rising again and headed to Bolton yesterday unbeaten in five games and only four points outside the play-offs.
Conway knows a thing or two about off-field distractions having joined from Cardiff in January.
Although he was away on loan with Brighton at the time, rumours of Bluebirds owner Vincent Tan meddling with tactics and the subsequent sacking of Malky Mackay shocked Conway.
Relief
So it’s with a sense of relief that the winger finds himself in Lancashire enjoying a quieter life under Bowyer.
“The manager here has been left to deal with the job, he controls everything and that helps,” said Conway, 28, who joined Rovers on a two-and-a-half-year deal on transfer deadline day.
“He’s done a fantastic job so far. I’ve only been here three weeks but I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. I know they have had problems in the past, but everything appears normal to me.
“Having spoken to the boss he’s very laid-back and chilled out, he brings a calming influence to the club – don’t get me wrong though, I wouldn’t like to get on the wrong side of him.”
On Mackay – who signed Conway from Dundee United in 2011 – and the problems at Cardiff, he added: “I don’t think we will ever know what went on.
“The players are often the last ones to know a lot of the time. Nobody can say apart from Malky and the owner what went on but it was a bit of a shock.
“I don’t know if the manager saw it coming on not, it’s hard for me to say, but he did a fantastic job at the club. The first two years were fantastic. I played 30-odd games, scored goals and we were successful, but I knew it wasn’t going to end like that when we got to the Premier League.
“They had a lot of money to spend on new players but I wanted to play every week.”
In Conway’s first start for Rovers last weekend, he scored the only goal of the game in a vital win over Reading. Including Conway, there were three senior Scotland internationals in Bowyer’s starting XI against the Royals with the impressive Tom Cairney – an U21 international – also in the side.
But it’s the potential partnership with striker Jordan Rhodes that has really got Conway excited for both club and country.
“You can’t argue with his goal record can you really? He’s the best finisher in the league,” continued Conway, who almost joined Blackburn before linking up with Brighton on loan for the first half of the season.
“You hear players say it, but he genuinely is always staying behind practising his finishing inside the six-yard box – that’s what he’s about. He suits me well. I like putting balls into the box and he feeds off that. So does Rudy Gestede, who I also know from Cardiff.
“It always helps when you know a few of the lads before you join a club, and us Scottish lads really seem to get about! I think myself and Jordan can click and hopefully get us into the play-offs. We’re definitely in with a chance.”