A Charlie Mulgrew-inspired Rovers saw Tony Mowbray’s Blue & White Army break records on the way to making an instant return to the Sky Bet Championship, via the automatic promotion spots, following a closely fought tie, which saw Blackburn edge out a 1-0 victory over Doncaster at the Keepmoat stadium, during the battle of the two Rovers’.
During Mowbray’s customary pre-match interview, the manager reduced the hype around the promotion by reaffirming the importance of performing and potentially winning the final 3 games of the season, as he spoke about keeping the run of 1 defeat in 32 games going in order to ensure that the season finishes as strongly as possible.
The 11 men who were tasked with earning the victory that would secure promotion, included one change to the side that came from behind to beat Peterborough United, 3-1, at Ewood Park on Saturday. Craig Conway was re-introduced as a starter, in-place of the on-loan Marcus Antonsson, who had to settle for a place on the Rovers bench.
As the players entered the field of play, roared on by 3,860 Roverites who had made the trip across the Pennines, it was Rovers who got the game underway, courtesy of Bradley Dack, who only needed 2 more goals to finish the season with 20.
With the Blues taking the kick-off, the possession inside the first 10 minutes was mainly in their favour. Their ability to hold onto the ball and play forwards was shown seconds into the game as Adam Armstrong used his blistering pace to get behind Doncaster’s backline early on, and strike a shot at goal, which was well blocked by Andy Butler, who did well to recover.
On the 7th minute, Lenihan was forced to commit a foul by the corner flag, which housed the travelling support behind it, as Doncaster looked to try and earn an early opening to break the deadlock and silence the away crowd. The ball was whipped in by the home side’s captain, James Coppinger, but his cross was cleared behind for a corner by Rovers. The subsequent corner caused a scramble in the box, before the ball was even kicked, as David Raya confidently came out to claim the cross, which relieved the pressure on the Blues’ defence.
With only 11 minutes gone on the clock, Rovers nearly found themselves ahead, courtesy of Danny Graham’s positional nous. The experienced forward managed to position himself between both of Doncaster’s centre-halves before running onto a well weighted through ball by Armstrong. Despite the heavy pitch, due to the watery conditions, the former Swansea forward was able to dribble the ball past Marko Marosi, but couldn’t match his movement to the finish, as the ball slithered across the face of goal before being cleared by a Craig Alcock.
4 minutes after Graham’s attempt, Rovers found themselves in-front of goal again as Smallwood, Conway, Armstrong and Graham all combined, but were somehow unable to find the back of the net. Conway did well to break free of his 3 markers, as he latched onto Richie Smallwood’s through ball. The Scot broke into the box before his cross from the byline fell to Armstrong, whose volley deflected off Niall Mason and Marosi in goal and fell to Graham, who couldn’t get his feet untangled to easily poke the ball home. Whilst Graham was sorting out his feet, it gave the Donny ‘keeper the vital seconds he needed to pounce on the ball and end the attack.
On the 17th minute, Alfie Beestin saw his effort well saved by David Raya, who remained alert between the posts, despite having very little to do inside the first 20 minutes.
Minutes after Raya’s save, Charlie Mulgrew had the chance to put Rovers ahead, after the Blues were awarded a central free-kick around 30-yards away from goal. With the away crowd holding their breath, the Rovers skipper dispatched a well-struck effort which looked destined to nestle into the bottom left-hand corner of Marosi’s goal, but the Slovakian did well to reach down to his right and palm the effort away.
On the 26th minute, Rovers came mightily close to breaking the deadlock when Craig Conway saw his curling effort skim the crossbar. Corry Evans did well to regain possession in the midfield and lay the ball off to Armstrong who used his pace to good effect as he broke away from Donny’s left-back and played in a deep ball which reached Conway. The 32-year old, then had the task of cutting onto his stronger right-foot and curling the ball towards goal, which he did and unfortunately for him, his effort lacked the dip it needed to put Rovers ahead, as Doncaster earnt a goal-kick.
With over half-an-hour of the game gone, Doncaster mounted their second attack of the game, which again came through Alfie Beestin and tested David Raya. James Coppinger, who was the key to everything Donny did successfully on the night, re-claimed the ball after some inaccurate Rovers passing. The 37-year old did well to break free of the Rovers defence and loft a ball into the box, which was met by Beestin’s head. The header, despite at first viewing looked to have been saved by Raya, actually hit the post and rebounded off the ‘keeper, out for a corner. The subsequent corner, which Coppinger took, was pushed away by Raya, as he asserted his authority and cleared away the danger.
With half-time only 5 minutes away, Rovers cranked up the pressure as they looked to head into the break, a goal to the good. After some good ball retention by Rovers, the ball was played out wide to Craig Conway who lofted an inviting ball into the box, as Dack, Graham and Armstrong all waited to latch onto the cross. Dack was the first to make a move as he leapt up with Andy Butler, but didn’t manage to direct his header towards goal, as it flicked off his head and fell to the unmarked Armstrong who volleyed back towards goal. His volley, which lacked real power, was blindly nodded by Dack, who had turned around and made a reaction movement towards the ball. Dack’s header, despite leaving Marosi and his defenders rooted to the spot, bounced wide of the upright.
On the 42nd minute, Doncaster looked to ruin all of Rovers’ first-half dominance with a late goal, but David Raya was once again on hand to save the Blues. A Doncaster corner was only partially cleared to the feet of Benjamin Whiteman, who wasted no time in striking a shot at goal. Whiteman’s effort went through a crowd of Rovers bodies before being well parried by Raya, who used his agility to quickly get down and palm the ball aside, before saving the rebound by Marquis.
As Rovers cleared the ball away and subsequently ran down the clock, referee Eddie Ilderton ended the first-half by blowing for the interval, after what was a good first-half, from Rovers’ perspective, but it just lacked the cutting edge they needed to go ahead.
As both sides entered their respective dressing rooms for half-time, both managers would have had mixed feelings regarding the performances of their sides. The home sides’ boss, Darren Ferguson, would have been pleased that his side had kept the back door shut, and not conceded despite the Rovers pressure, but he would have been disappointed that his side weren’t able to make their few chances pay, despite crafting some decent opportunities. Tony Mowbray, on the other hand, would have been annoyed with his sides’ failure to find the back of the net, despite their dominance, but he would have been happy with the number of chances created and would have encouraged his players to go out and continue what they had been doing during the second-half in order to satisfy the demands of the 3,860 supporters they would be attacking towards.
As both sides re-emerged for the second period, it was the home side who kicked-off the second-half. Although they had only racked up a few chances in the first period, they started off the second, brightly as John Marquis seemed to have put the ball into the back of the net from inside the area, but Mr. Ilderton had blown prior to the ball crossing the line, and brought back the play for a Doncaster free-kick, which saw Charlie Mulgrew go into the book for his troubles.
With just over an hour being played, Rovers returned to the dominant play that had caused Doncaster so much trouble in the first-half as everyone with a Rovers badge on their chest cranked up the pressure, whether that being on the pitch or in the stand. As the booming voices of the 3,860 Rovers fans cascaded down across the Keepmoat Stadium, Elliott Bennett provided a few dangerous crosses, which saw the ball blocked and played back to him. His eventual successful ball, ricocheted off a few of the hosts’ defenders before falling to Derrick Williams who powered a shot at goal, only to see it blocked by the home side.
With 69 minutes gone on the clock, Derrick Williams was at it again as his header, which he gained from Mulgrew’s corner. The corner was whipped in with venom as it bypassed everyone in red and white hoops, before landing on the head of the stooped Derrick Williams. His header was directed towards goal, but with Marosi beaten, the header didn’t nestle into the net as it hit the post and went behind for another corner. From the second corner, the ball was cleared and then lofted toward the back-post by Richie Smallwood. Smallwood’s ball landed to the feet of Dack whose cross targeted the unmarked Graham at the far-post. Unfortunately for Rovers, a combination of ‘keeper and defender stopped the ball from reaching Graham as the home side conceded another corner, which was cleared.
In the space of 7 minutes, both sides changed up their personnel as Rovers made all 3 subs, whilst the hosts only made 2. For Blackburn, Craig Conway, Danny Graham and Adam Armstrong were all withdrawn and were replaced by Jack Payne, Dominic Samuel and Marcus Antonsson respectively. Doncaster’s changes saw James Coppinger and Alfie Beestin removed with Luke McCullough and Andy Williams replacing them.
With the changes in personnel out of the way, Rovers could solely focus on trying to break the deadlock and score the goal that could send them to the Championship. That goal, was soon to come as on the 80th minute, Charlie Mulgrew and Bradley Dack switched roles as the latter provided for the former, to make it 1-0. Dack’s corner was whipped in towards the near-post which saw Mulgrew charge towards and direct it into the back of the net whilst brushing off his marker, as Marosi failed to get his hand on the ball and could only watch it zip past him into the red and white mesh of the net.
Following the goal, Doncaster made their final change as Rodney Kongolo was introduced in place of Craig Alcock.
With 3 minutes left on the clock, Doncaster came incredibly close to levelling the scoring and ruining Rovers’ evening. Benjamin Whiteman’s corner was headed towards goal by Niall Mason, but his header landed directly into the hands of Raya, and despite the pressure from lurking Doncaster players, managed to hold onto the ball.
With the 90 minutes played, the referee signalled for an extra 5 minutes of time to be added onto the end of the half, which had Rovers fans in anger as they were all waiting for the final whistle in order to the promotion party to begin. As cries of ‘The Blues are going up!’ and ‘We’re Blackburn Rovers, we’re on our way back!’ emerged from the away end, the players did all they could in order to run down the clock and prevent Doncaster from spoiling the ensuing party.
As Rovers earnt a corner and played it short into the box, the final whistle blew which confirmed Rovers’ return to the second tier of English football at the first attempt. Simultaneously with the whistle came the floods of Rovers fans who streamed down from behind the goal in order to celebrate with the players and manager.
With the Blues sealing promotion back to the Sky Bet Championship, the real task now lies at the feet of Tony Mowbray, who now has to build on the solid foundation he’s created in order to keep the momentum going into next season. Despite there still being 2 games left, with the title still up for grabs, Mowbray’s attention has no doubt swayed to pre-season and his subsequent meetings with the owners as they set out the plan for next year.
In terms of the players, they have produced when the fans and the town asked them to, especially after being 12 points off Wigan and Shrewsbury back in October. As a result of their amazing run, which has only seen 1 defeat in 33 games, Rovers have also broken the club record of the most points in a season, with 93 and the most away wins in a season, which is 13. Additionally, the record for the highest number of wins, at 27, has been equalled, with the last time that happening, being 23 years ago, when Rovers were crowned the Champions of England in 1995, thanks to the one and only, Jack Walker.
Looking towards the league table, with Shrewsbury Town no longer being a thorn in both Rovers and Wigan Athletic’s sides, the two favourites to go up are now free to slog it out for the league title, safely knowing that they will be playing their football in the 2nd tier of English football, next season. With there only being 2 games of the season left and with Wigan on 94 points and Rovers being on 93 respectively, there is every possibility that Wigan can slip up and put the title on a plate for Rovers to grab. Despite their tendency to win games by 4 or 5, the Latics have also shown that they are prone to the odd unexpected defeat.
With the season drawing to a close, Rovers only have 2 games of the season before the campaign is well and truly wrapped up. The first game comes on the 28th April, where Rovers, backed by another sold-out allocation travel down to the Valley to face Charlton Athletic. For those not lucky enough to grab a ticket to the occasion, then you can head down to Ewood Park where the game will be broadcast in 3 different locations across the ground, all for free! Following the Charlton game, Rovers’ final opponents of the season are Oxford United, who will end their season at Ewood Park. The tie is on 5th May with kick-off scheduled for 5:30pm, as Rovers look to gain maximum points from both games to try and snatch the league title away from Wigan Athletic.
