The Blackburn Low Down | Vital Football

The Blackburn Low Down

PompeyFrippy

PompeyFrippy

Vital 1st Team Regular
OPPONENTS: Blackburn Rovers Football Club
MANAGER: Tony Mowbray
NICKNAME: Rovers or The Riversiders
LEAGUE POSITION: 10th

THE JOURNEY: Fratton Park to Ewood Park - It's a long one, over 500 miles round trip, best part of 5 hours each way.

LAST TIME OUT:
* Two early goals essentially ended the game before it got started at Doncaster on Tuesday, Pompey did get one back thanks to a freak own goal, but it wasn't enough to stop the Blues from falling to a 2-1 defeat.
* Blackburn made hard work of bottom of the league Plymouth on Tuesday, with Bradley Dack scoring in first half stoppage time to equalise, but despite having plenty of chances they found themselves unable to get all 3 points as it finished 1-1.

POMPEY STATS:
* Pompey haven't experienced back to back loses for 259 days days, when they suffered consecutive defeats at home to Exeter and away to Wycombe.
* Conor Chaplin reached the 100 game milestone on Tuesday with his substitute appearance. This saw him join Burgess (101), Bennett (107) and Evans (107) in the 100 club. 73 of those appearances have been as a substitute.
* Pompey have scored in 22 of their last 25 competitive matches, and have scored in all but 3 away matches in the last 14 months.
* Dion Donahue became the third Pompey player to see red this season (with Lowe and Evans) after his straight red on Tuesday - more than the team received all of last season (2).
* Top Scorer: Pitman (9), Hawkins (3), Chaplin/Lowe/Kennedy/(2)

BLACKBURN STATS:
* Rovers have had a reasonably slow start by their standards to the League One campaign following last season's relegation. They sit 10th, but only 2 points outside the play-offs with 2 games in hand on many teams around them.
* Blackburn have only conceded 1 goal in their 6 wins this season, three of which have finished 1-0.
* Despite having one of the largest stadiums in the league (Capacity: 31,367), Blackburn only boast an average attendance of 10,708, meaning 2/3rds of Ewood Park is empty on match days.
* Blackburn Rovers are the only team outside of the Premier League to have won the Premier League since it's rebrand in 1992. That triumph came in 1994/95 season with players including Tim Flowers, Tim Sherwood, Graeme Le Saux, Stuart Ripley, Chris Sutton and Alan Shearer.
* Top Scorers: Dominic Samuel (4), Charlie Mulgrew & Marcus Antonsson (3)

HEAD TO HEAD (Courtesy of Pompeyrama.com):
* Pompey and Blackburn have met a whopping 85 times in the last century, with Rovers leading the win tally 37-26 (22 draws).
* The two teams have not met since they shared time in the Premier League together. They met 14 times in 7 seasons in the top flight, with Blackburn winning 8 and Pompey winning 4 (2 draws).
* The last meeting between the two sides finished goalless, whereas the last meeting at Ewood Park in November 2009 finished 3-1 to Rovers, with Jamie O'Hara giving Pompey the lead before a brace from former Blue Jason Roberts condemned Pompey to defeat.

ONE TO WATCH:
* Charlie Mulgrew - On paper, Blackburn have a very experienced team, with the likes of Danny Graham, Peter Whittingham and Corry Evans in their ranks. Mulgrew is in his second season at Rovers and is club captain and at 31, he still has plenty left in the tank and is one of the most dominant center backs in League One. He is the catalyst behind Blackburn's defence, which is the best outside the Top 2 in the league. He has also chipped in with a few crucial goals this season and will be a force to be reckoned with.

PREDICTION:
* This is our toughest game since Wigan in my opinion. We will be without Donahue for 3 games, so Haunstraup will likely come in, and Brett Pitman could return, although personally I'd like to see him rested for another week and not risk aggravating the injury. Lessons will be learnt after the start at Donny, and I expect a cagey match with few chances. I'd take a point, so I'll plump for a 0-0.

NEXT 5 GAMES:
Sat 28th Oct - Bradford (H) - League One
Sat 4th Nov - Luton Town (A) - FA Cup 1st Round
Tue 7th Nov - Charlton (A) - Checkatrade Trophy
Sat 11th Nov - Blackpool (A) - League One
Sat 18th Nov - Southend (H) - League One

FRIPPY'S TEASER:
Which Pompey hero debuted as a sub against Blackburn, scored winning goals on two different occasions and also missed a penalty against Blackburn?

PUP
 
The Football League have now announced the Match Day officials that will take charge of the game between Blackburn Rovers and Portsmouth this Saturday.


<br><br><a href ="http://www.vitalfootball.co.uk/router.asp?586554">Click here to read the article</a><br><br>
 
Pompey go to Ewood Park as the visitors to Blackburn today, this will be a 3pm kick-off.


<br><br><a href ="http://www.vitalfootball.co.uk/router.asp?586597">Click here to read the article</a><br><br>
 
The 2017-18 season continues with the latest round of games this weekend, 21st October.


<br><br><a href ="http://www.vitalfootball.co.uk/router.asp?586604">Click here to read the article</a><br><br>
 
This is our toughest game since Wigan in my opinion.


<br><br><a href ="http://www.vitalfootball.co.uk/router.asp?586607">Click here to read the article</a><br><br>
 
I'd agree Frippy, it'll be - in theory - our toughest game since Wigan. In fact it could be our toughest of the season? Then again Blackburn haven't exactly produced what was expected of them this season.

I'd like to think if Plymouth can get a draw at Ewood Park we can? Will happily take a point!
 
As for the trivia, it's got to be Kanu, surely? He scored two on his debut and missed a penalty didn't he - sure that came with him coming off the bench in a win at Fratton. He also scored at Ewood Park in a 1-0 win I think it was one Sunday afternoon?
 
Bullseye Rug, that goal at Ewood Park was probably his most important for the club - can't think of any more crucial... !
 
One bit of good news is that Dion Donahue's red card has been rescinded, so he will be available to play tomorrow.

It did look very harsh, he swung a leg but he was nowhere near the player at it wasn't exactly malicious, more a case of he was frustrated at himself that he lost the ball.

If the ref hadn't had reacted to Darren Ferguson throwing the toys out of the pram maybe we could have salvaged a point or maybe more, but just another reason to dislike the moany little arse.
 
Spent £200, travelled 1000 miles, and seen two dreadful performances this past week.

Tuesday was bad, but second half we got better and could have nicked a point. Today was just abysmal from the first minute to the last. Could hardly get out of our own half in the 1st half, the set-up was so negative. It was clear we were playing for a 0-0 draw, but the midfield was over run, out battled, and lost out on every second ball which meant it completely failed. We barely registered a shot and if the result wasn't bad enough, it was compounded by the horrible weather!

I thought we might have turned a corner after the MK Dons game, especially the 1st half. We passed the ball and attacked with more energy/intent than I'd seen so far from this team, but we've kind of resorted to type in the last two games, with direct and defensive football - and the results haven't come. Some tough games coming up in the next few weeks, plus our away record currently is very poor. I believe we have the basis of a strong defence in Thompson, Burgess, Clarke, and McCrory when he's fit, but they're going to need a lot more support from the players in front of them.

Football can get you down sometimes...
 
The League One season continued with the latest round of games played over the weekend, Saturday 21st October.


<br><br><a href ="http://www.vitalfootball.co.uk/router.asp?586656">Click here to read the article</a><br><br>
 
All the stats from Blackburn (3) vs (0) Portsmouth, Ewood Park, 21/10/17 Att: 11,673


<br><br><a href ="http://www.vitalfootball.co.uk/router.asp?586650">Click here to read the article</a><br><br>
 
In poor conditions, which cannot be used as an excuse as both sides had to play in this at Ewood Park, Blackburn ran out comfortable 3-0 winners over Pompey on Saturday.


<br><br><a href ="http://www.vitalfootball.co.uk/router.asp?586661">Click here to read the article</a><br><br>
 
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