Blackburn Rovers vs Ipswich Town 
Saturday 3rd October 2015 – 15:00
Ewood Park
Opening Thought – Jamma
Well that didn’t work out quite as it was supposed to, did it? All the talk in the build-up to the Bristol City game was about how Mick McCarthy’s selection policy for the cup match had piled on the pressure on our return to league action. Going by the number of Tractor Boys and Girls confidently predicting a home win in the preview, this level of expectation was shared by the supporters. But any thoughts that this would be a comfortable 3 points were dispelled in about as much time as it took the Robins to force Dean Gerken into a fingertip reaction save 5 minutes in. This set the tone for a difficult first half, in which we struggled to get to grips with a Bristol City side that belied their league position. Their 3-5-2 formation gave them the platform to absorb what little threat we offered before breaking at pace. Having been fortunate to get to the break on level terms, and then taken the lead within a minute of the restart, the Blues should have gone on to wrap up the 3 points against a team heading for the bottom of the league. This may well have been the case had Daryl Murphy’s piledriver from the edge of the box gone the right side of the post as opposed to arrowing agonisingly wide. Instead, we found ourselves 2-1 down 10 minutes into the second half. Such are the fine margins in football.
As tempting as it was to think that Saturday’s draw represented 2 points dropped, there is at least as much of a case for saying that it was a point gained. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one at Portman Road thinking ‘I’d take a draw from this’ as the game drifted to its seemingly inevitable conclusion. While I obviously wasn’t celebrating come the final whistle, I was at least able to see the positives. Yes, we had drawn a second consecutive home game which we would have been expecting to win but we hadn’t done enough to claim the 3 points. Andym raised an interesting point with his thoughts after Saturday’s match, as he compared the contrasting reactions to the 1-1 draws against Birmingham and Bristol City. Although we had turned in a better performance the previous week, the number of clear-cut opportunities that we passed up made it feel like a defeat. In a game such as Saturday’s, on the other hand, sometimes you just have to take the point and move on, especially if it puts you level with four other teams in joint 3rd! Come the end of the season, that could be the point which makes the difference between qualifying for the play-offs and missing out. With the table now starting to ‘concertina up’ – to borrow an expression from McCarthy – now would be a good time to get some points on the board.
The Opposition – Blackburn Rovers
The club was founded in 1875 and, on 28 September 1878, Blackburn Rovers became one of 23 clubs to form the Lancashire Football Association.
Blackburn were an early F.A. Cup winner, with a 2–1 victory over the Scottish team Queen's Park on 29 March 1884, and then repeated the feat over the next two seasons for 3 consecutive Cup wins. They won the trophy for a fourth & fifth time in 1890 & 1891 respectively.
Blackburn Rovers were founder members of the Football League in 1888.
Blackburn Rovers struggled during the early years of the 20th century, before a gradual improvement in results began. During the first three decades of the 20th century, Blackburn Rovers were still considered a top side in the English league. They were First Division champions in 1911–12 and 1913–14, and F.A. Cup winners in 1927–28.
Blackburn Rovers maintained a respectable mid-table position in the First Division until they were finally relegated from the top flight (for the first time since the foundation of the league) in the 1935–36 season.
When the league resumed after the war, Blackburn Rovers were relegated in their second season (1947–48). The club remained in the second division for the following ten years. After promotion in 1958, they again returned to the mid-table position they had occupied in the earlier part of the century.
They were again relegated from the First Division in 1966 and began a 26-year exile from the top division.
During the 1970s, Blackburn Rovers bounced between the Second and Third Divisions, winning the Third Division title in 1975, but never mounted a challenge for promotion to the First Division, despite the efforts of successive managers to put the club back on track.
Following the Jack Walker takeover, Rovers finished 19th in the Second Division at the end of the 1990–91 season, and the new owner had made millions of pounds available to spend on new players and appointed Kenny Dalglish as manager in October 1991. Blackburn secured promotion to the new FA Premier League at the end of 1991–92 season as play-off winners, ending 26 years outside the top flight.
Rovers made headlines in the summer of 1992 by paying an English record fee of £3.5million for the 22-year-old Southampton and England centre forward Alan Shearer. After finishing fourth in 1992–93 and runners-up in 1993–94, they went on to win the Premier League title in 1994–95.
Kenny Dalglish moved upstairs to the position of Director of Football at the end of the Premier League-winning season, and handed over the reins to his assistant Ray Harford. Blackburn Rovers made a poor start to the 1995–96 season, and found themselves in the bottom half for most of the first half of the season. A terrible start to the 1996–97 Premier League campaign saw Harford resign in late October with the club bottom of the division. Relegation looked a real possibility, just two seasons after winning the league. At the end of the 1998/99 season, Blackburn were relegated back to Division One.
Jack Walker died just after the start of the 2000–01 season, and the club dedicated its promotion challenge in memory of their benefactor. Fittingly, they returned to the Premier League after a much-improved season, finishing second behind Fulham.
In 2001–02, Blackburn won their first ever League Cup by beating Tottenham Hotspur 2–1 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
In November 2010, the Indian company V H Group bought Blackburn Rovers under the name of Venky's London Limited for £23 million. The new owners sacked manager Sam Allardyce and replaced him with first-team coach Steve Kean, initially on a temporary basis.
In December 2011, it was announced that Blackburn Rovers had posted an annual pre-tax loss of £18.6m for the year ending 30 June 2011. Despite this, the owners of Blackburn Rovers provided assurances over the continued funding of the club, even if they were relegated.
On 7 May 2012, the club was relegated to the Championship after being defeated at home by Wigan Athletic in the penultimate game of the season, ending 11 years of being in the English Premier League.
In the 2013/14 season, Blackburn finished in 8th place in the Championship, one place ahead of us in the table.
Last season, Blackburn went one place worse, finishing in 9th place with 67 points.
One To Watch – Craig Conway
I will resist the temptation to feature a certain former Town striker in this section, although, going by our last few games against Blackburn, maybe the defence could do with a reminder of his threat…! Instead, I am going to focus on one of Rovers’ tricky wingers.
Craig Conway made the switch from Cardiff in January 2014, arriving at Ewood Park on a two-and-a-half-year contract. He made an instant impact, becoming a regular member of the side that just missed out on the top 6 along with Ipswich in 2013/14. The Scottish international started out with Ayr United in his homeland, but really came to prominence in his time at Dundee United, where he earnt his first call-up and attracted interest from South of the border. He opted to move to Cardiff in 2011 and won promotion to the Premier League with the Bluebirds. However, he failed to make a start in the top flight, also taking in a loan spell with Brighton. Together with Ben Marshall on the other flank, Conway provides a formidable outlet on the wing, with both players equally capable operating on either side. They are likely to interchange on Saturday, and look to make inroads against our full-backs. Town’s back four will be delighted to know that it isn’t just Mr. Rhodes who they will have to keep an eye on!
The Gaffer – Gary Bowyer
After playing non-League football for Westfields, Bowyer, a full-back, signed for Football League team Hereford United on non-contract terms, making 14 appearances in the 1989–90 season. After the season ended, Bowyer moved to Nottingham Forest, but he never made a senior Football League appearance for them. Bowyer later signed for Rotherham United, making 38 appearances in the League over the next two seasons, before retiring due to injury.
After retiring as a player, Bowyer began his coaching career working part-time at Ilkeston, before being appointed as Under-17 coach at Derby County, where he spent six years as an academy coach. He then became Under 18s coach for Blackburn Rovers in 2004. He became reserve team manager in 2008, and in December 2012 he was appointed as caretaker manager following the dismissal of Henning Berg, steering them to a 3–1 victory over Barnsley in his first game in charge. It was later announced that Bowyer would remain in charge until the end of January.
Bowyer was re-appointed Caretaker Manager on 19 March 2013, following the sacking of Michael Appleton, until the end of the season. However, on 26 March 2013, Bowyer said he was unsure how long he would remain in the position, in case the club hired a new permanent manager, and on 8 April 2013 Bowyer was summoned to India for a meeting with the club's owners.
Bowyer was appointed the permanent manager of Blackburn on 24 May 2013, on a 12-month rolling contract.
In his first full season in charge, the club finished 8th in the Championship, narrowly missing out on a play-off position, and followed up with a 9th place finish last season.
Past Match - Video Highlights - Trev
Here are the goals from a 3-1 win over Blackburn a couple of seasons ago, complete with a goal from you-know-who, naturally!
Trev's Trivia
Players to play for both teams
Gary Croft ITFC 1999-2002 BRFC 1996-1999
Jordan Rhodes ITFC 2007-2009 BRFC 2012-present
Allan Hunter ITFC 1971-1982 BRFC 1969-1971
Shefki Kuqi ITFC 2003-2005 (2008 loan) BRFC 2005-2006
Media Watch - K L Blue
An interesting article on the distances travelled by the intrepid Blue Army this season:
http://www.sudburymercury.co.uk/news/fa ... _1_4252659
Mick McCarthy is keen to have Teddy Bishop back as soon as possible:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34393502
Josh Yorwerth’s loan move from new club Crawley’s perspective:
http://www.crawley.vitalfootball.co.uk/ ... p?a=557288
Luke Hyam gives an honest interview about his injury frustrations this year and his path back to the First Team:
http://www.sudburymercury.co.uk/sport/i ... _1_4253201
Stat Time
Head to Head
Blackburn Wins....................13 (29.55%)
Ipswich Town Wins................15 (34.09%)
Draws................................16 (36.36%)
Blackburn Goals...................55 (ave. 1.25 per match)
Ipswich Town Goals...............53 (ave. 1.20 per match)
Head To Head At Blackburn
Blackburn Wins.....................11 (50.00%)
Ipswich Town Wins..................5 (22.73%)
Draws.................................6 (27.27%)
Blackburn Goals....................33 (ave. 1.50 per match)
Ipswich Town Goals................21 (ave. 0.95 per match)
The Predicted Teams
Blackburn
Changes are likely to be kept to a minimum for a Blackburn side that has – like Ipswich, remember – gone three games unbeaten in the league.
30 Jason Steele
2 Adam Henley
5 Grant Hanley
22 Shane Duffy
14 Markus Olsson
32 Craig Conway
29 Corrie Evans
21 Hope Akpan
10 Ben Marshall
11 Jordan Rhodes
16 Tom Lawrence
Ipswich Town
Mick will certainly have had the proverbial ‘selection headache’ on the training ground this week, of the painful variety as opposed to the pleasant one that we are often hearing about. There is a case for widespread changes following a disappointing couple of displays in the league, but I suspect McCarthy will be more inclined to give the current incumbents another chance.
1 Dean Gerken
4 Luke Chambers
5 Tommy Smith
6 Christophe Berra
3 Jonas Knudsen
7 Ainsley Maitland-Niles
8 Cole Skuse
17 Kevin Bru
14 Ryan Fraser
20 Freddie Sears
10 David McGoldrick
Marko's Caption Contest
Another very good week of captions, although a little less entries. Gaps are starting to appear mid table.
Must give the 5 points to Shed on Tour for this:
* When they said watch out for the gas I thought somebody had farted. But it's even worse than I thought as what they meant was there are a load of Rovers fans after me! *
That's class!
"Ron Smallwood Gump" was also very funny so 4 points to Derick.
LEAGUE TABLE
DerickIpsw 17
Blueblood 16
Barmy Billy 15
Number9 15
Quasar 13
Floors 12
James Scharmann 8
Frosty 8
Foxy Lady 8
Charnwood 8
IpswichtownNO1 7
Nicscreamer 7
Ando 7
Bluemike 7
Shed on Tour 6
Herforder 6
Ashfordblue 3
Ohiotractorboy 3
Watership Down 2
Hallamblue 2
LoudNProud 1
Have a go at this:
Or maybe this?
Points given for both pictures......., try and get some of you back in the game.
Match Referee – Andre Marriner
Final Thought - Frosty
Two points lost. Let’s leave it at that after last weekend.
Unfortunately it won’t be easy to bounce back with a win this weekend as it’s off to Blackburn, who, although currently sitting in 18th place on the Championship table with 8 points, have been in better form recently than maybe what the table reflects.
Did I tell you their top scorer is some Scottish git with 5 goals? …. Anyway, I digress.
Over their past four outings, Rovers have managed to draw away at both Hull and QPR and thump Charlton at home, with their only blemish being a one-goal loss away at Fulham.
Our recent record against Blackburn isn’t anything to overly inspire confidence either as, in the previous 10 fixtures between the two sides, Rovers have won 4, we have won one, and there have been 5 draws.
I guess, reflecting on the above, this is the sort of match where we will put 5 goals past them and make me look like a bloody idiot.
Two other fixtures really capture my attention this weekend, the first being the Seagulls at home to the Bluebirds, the other being Reading playing host to Middlesbrough. Maybe keep an eye on the Forest versus Hull result as well.
For those of you travelling to Blackburn, if you went to the Manchester game then you basically know the journey. Nevertheless, have a safe one and I hope it’s made all worthwhile with the addition of 3 points to our tally.
COYB!
BLACKBURN ROVERS 1 IPSWICH TOWN 2
..same drivel that we always seem to be getting that "they are a better team than where they are"..why the bloody hell does MM persist with this approach...i know some well say he is responding to questions put to him , but his stock reply should be "i think about our team , not theirs" rather than a fairly defeatist approach he takes all the bloody time.!! 
