Blackburn v Swansea

K

keith margam

Vital Football Legend
Blackburn v Swansea, Sat 19 Oct, 15:00

Another frustrating two week International break now over, for a while at least. We’ve had two already, another two due, in November and March respectively.

Disproportionally, our next run of games are four away and two at home before the next break in what is a disjointed fixture schedule.

We count the cost this time with Eom out injured for 6 weeks with a knee injury, just when he was hitting peak form.

Will we sign up, purse strings allowing, the two experienced and versatile free agent players Cyrus Christie and Adam Reach, who’ve been training with us during the break? They would certainly boost our thin on the ground squad if match fit.

The first of two tough away games is Blackburn Rovers this Saturday with Sheffield Wednesday the following Tuesday.
Last season we won 0-1 there, thanks to a first half Liam Cullen goal.

Blackburn were busy in the transfer market this summer. Among the eight players transferred out was star player and prolific scorer, attacking midfielder Sammie Szmodics, who has gone to Ipswich, and centre-forward Sam Gallagher to Stoke.

Seven replacements include well known players Andreas Wiemann, Danny Batth and Todd Cantwell.

A profit of almost £10m, mostly from the Szmodics deal, for Rovers owners the VH Group Venky’s, an Indian poultry company, which is part of the Rao family.

By the way Rovers debts stood at £142m in May 2024, but chickenfeed (excuse the pun) for the VH Group, recently valued at £1.66 billion. The clubs debt is the third highest in the Championship behind Middlesbrough £159m and relegated Birmingham £149m, compared to Swansea’s £12m.

Back to the match, it will be a tough game, but it should be taken into account that they are in transition this season with many new players, the same as us.

Blackburn are 8th in the table, a point off the play-offs
P9 W4 D3 L2 F15 A11 Pts 15

Swansea are 11th in the table
P9 W3 D3 L3 F8 A6 Pts 12

So far it’s clear that we are not scoring enough goals. Those 3 away defeats were all only 1-0. If we had brought in a recognised goal scorer in the summer it’s fair to say things could have looked a lot different.
 
Just some additional notes of interest to the match preview.

We meet up with another ex-Swan at Blackburn, winger Ryan Hedges, who was with us from 2013-2017.

Their manager is John Eustace since last February.

Remember last season, in a shock move, Plymouth’s new manager Wayne Rooney replaced John Eustace at Birmingham after Eustace was sacked with the team in 6th position.
Rooney only lasted 15 games with 9 defeats before Tony Mowbray took over and Birmingham were eventually relegated.

Eustace was previously assistant manager to Steve McClaren and Mark Warburton at QPR.
Whilst there he mysteriously had a last minute change of mind and turned down the Swans Head-Coach job offer before Russell Martin eventually taking over in 2021.

Blackburn have a 100% win record at home in their 4 games so far. The sale of prolific scorer Szmodics to Ipswich in the summer was a big loss for them, 33 goals last season and the Championship Golden Boot winner. His replacement was attacking midfielder Todd Cantwell from Glasgow Rangers .

Centre-forward Sam Gallagher also departed to Stoke, replaced by Makhtar Gueye from Belgian Club RWD Molenbeek.

After two consecutive away defeats, 3-0 at Coventry and 2-1 at Plymouth, they’ll be desperate to get back on track.
 
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The teams this afternoon:

Swans:
Lawrence Vigouroux, Josh Key, Ben Cabango, Harry Darling, Josh Tymon, Matt Grimes (c), Goncalo Franco, Ollie Cooper, Ronald, Liam Cullen, Florian Bianchini

Subs:
Jon McLaughlin, Jay Fulton, Joe Allen, Zan Vipotnik, Nathan Tjoe-A-On, Myles Peart-Harris, Kyle Naughton, Nelson Abbey, Azeem Abdulai


Rovers:
Aynsley Pears, Dominic Hyam, Sondre Tronstad, Todd Cantwell, Makhtar Gueye, Tyrhys Dolan, Joe Rankin-Costello, Hayden Carter, Ryan Hedges, Owen Beck, Lewis Travis (c)

Subs:
Balazs Toth, Callum Brittain, Harry Pickering, Arnor Sigurdsson, Andreas Weimann, Danny Batth, John Buckley, Yuki Ohashi, Lewis Baler
 
Dozy Swansea defending from a corner, down 1-0 already. They can’t keep hold of the ball. So much for a solid defence.
1-0 Dolan 13’
Only one side in it so far.
 
First half-chance after 29 mins, low cross across the goalmouth, nobody there to slot it home.
34’ first corner - comes to nothing.
36’ free kick into the goalmouth, nobody there.
38’ another corner - goes over the top of everybody.
40’ Key booked, Franco was also harshly booked earlier, his after only 7 mins.
44’ Cabango races forward and passes the ball into touch.
45’ another corner wasted, first defender heads it away.
 
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HT: 1-0
Blackburn all over us first 20’
We came back into it with corners and free kicks but all wasteful. We were generally pretty punchless and non creative near goal, with seemingly no idea how to score.
Things will have to change second-half or we are getting nothing from this match.
 
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46’ Hedges beats Tymon and shoots wide.
49’ Cabango last ditch tackle, corner gathered by Vigouroux.
52’ very poor Bianchini off, Abdulai on.
 
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53’ loose ball into the box from Abdulai cross, cleared.
58’ another Grimes free kick, headed away.
60’ Beck carded after numerous fouls.
61’ Franco shot goes wide.
 
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71’ Peart-Harris on for Cullen, Allen on for Franco.
73’ Wiemann shot saved.
78’ Allen low free kick to Grimes, shot blocked.
 
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86’ four corners in succession………. nothing.
87’ Darling header saved.
4 mins added time
91’ ball right across the face of goal, no Swans player there.
94’ goodbye Swans.
FT: 1-0
 
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Fourth defeat of the season, fourth 1-0 away defeat, seems like a regulatory score these days. Third consecutive game without scoring.
We had almost twice as many shots as Blackburn, 8 corners to 3 in our favour, 67% possession and nothing to show for it once again. Biggest miss, Franco, should have scored.
Now winless in four games with only one goal scored.
Once again we lose after an International break, what do they do in training, not shooting practice that’s for sure.
Bottom line we are just not good enough.
 
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