As the Blues begin to gear up for their return to the Championship, Rovers have announced the scheduling of 3 pre-season fixtures, which will see Tony Mowbray’s men face 3 varying levels of opposition, in preparation for the 2018-19 Sky Bet Championship season.
With more friendlies to be announced in due course, the first batch of pre-season clashes see a trio of away games pencilled into Rovers’ calendar, all throughout the summer month of July.
The first fixture that Rovers are scheduled to participate in, is an away tie at Easter Road, which sees Mowbray return to his old stomping ground, to face his former employers, Hibernian. The 54-year old kicked off his managerial career at the helm of the Edinburgh-based side, guiding them to a very respectable third-place finish during his maiden season in the SPL. The manager spent 41 months at the Hibees, before departing in October 2006, to take the reins at West Bromwich Albion.
The clash at Easter Road, which has been arranged to take place on Sunday, 8th July, with a 3pm kick-off, will serve as a testimonial for Hibs’ vice-captain and stalwart defender, Paul Hanlon, as well as a game in which Rovers can regain their fitness following the summer months.
Rovers’ second fixture, sees the Blues return to England and make the 91-mile round-trip from Ewood Park, to Vale Park, where they will face a Port Vale side, who narrowly avoided back-to-back relegations out of the Football League.
With the tie scheduled for Saturday, 14th July at 3pm, it will no doubt, give Rovers another chance to experiment with tactics and introduce any new blood, that would have been brought in over the summer, to the fans. Despite Vale’s recent downfall over the past 2 years, they will be hoping that they can get one over on the Championship side, in order to breed confidence within their squad ahead of the new season.
The final fixture currently scheduled, sees Lancashire neighbours, Accrington Stanley – hot off their promotion into League 1 – clash with Rovers at the Wham Stadium for what will be, the third time in 6 years.
Following John Coleman’s side’s promotion to League 1, a non-competitive clash against higher ranked opposition will be the perfect way for Accy to prepare for the, undoubtedly tough season, which lies ahead of them in the third tier. From Rovers’ perspective, the clash against lower ranked opposition, which is will be played on Saturday, 28th July, will give them a chance to pick up from where they left off in League 1 and, if all goes well, continue their momentum from 2017-18, into 2018-19 as they look to build on the re-organised foundations that Tony Mowbray has set up at Ewood Park.
With fans eagerly anticipating the start of the new season, these 3 games will provide Rovers with a good base with which to assess how well they may do in the 2018-19 Championship. As the fixture have been announced relatively early, there are ticket details available at this current moment, as the club claim that information regarding ticket sales, will be released closer to each match.
