adminTown travel to Blackburn Rovers for the restaging of the game abandoned in September, looking to bounce back from Friday’s 2-1 defeat at Oxford United in what again seem set to be very soggy conditions.
The Blues were 1-0 behind and down to 10 men – Jacob Greaves had been red-carded – when referee Stephen Martin called a halt to the game at Ewood Park at the 80-minute mark in September, although in truth he could well have brought it to an end much earlier in the half or at the break with conditions having been very difficult throughout.
Rovers were furious after the abandonment and wanted the result to stand or the final 10 minutes played out with the Blues fielding 10 men.
However, the EFL, as per previous similar situations, ruled that the match should be played again in its entirety.
The match is the Blues’ fourth in a run of seven in 22 days and the third away from home in eight with manager Kieran McKenna, speaking after the loss at the Kassam Stadium, pleased at least to have an additional day to prepare having won 2-0 away at Hull City last Tuesday ahead of the trip to face the U’s on Friday.
“Plenty of travelling, it brings its challenges, but we’ve got a few days extra to turnaround,” he said. “Tuesday to Friday was quick for both teams, so we’ve got an extra day before the next one. I’m sure come Tuesday we’ll be ready to go.”
Asked whether tiredness will play a part during the busy run, McKenna said: “We hope not and we’ll do everything we can to make sure not. I don’t think it did tonight, I think it’s more a case that goals can set you back in the game, especially away from home.
“After a really good confident start, we were in control of the game. I think the first goal rocked us a little bit, gave the crowd a lot of energy and gave the opponent a lot of energy and then they have one or two more transitions.
“And the same for the second goal, to be honest. We were in control of the game and looking the more likely team to score, then after that they get confidence and belief on the counter and they have one or two more.
“I don’t think tonight was about the fixture list, I think it’s just a group of players, still a pretty new group of players, who are working hard to improve as a team, who have made some good steps, but made some mistakes tonight away from home, and in this league you can get punished for that, and we got punished for that.”
McKenna said he would assess his squad over the weekend ahead of Tuesday’s match: “We’re trying to plan ahead a little bit at the moment because it’s really hard for anyone to play all seven games, not impossible but really hard.
“We have a good squad and pretty good availability at the moment. This is the fourth game of a really, really busy run we have coming up and then we know we have Coventry, Stoke and Leicester, three of the better footballing teams that are going to be three high energy games.
“We’re going to have to utilise the squad and we’ll make those decisions over the weekend and into Monday and make sure we’ve got a team that’s fresh enough to go on Tuesday and deliver the performance that we’re going to want.”
The Blues boss and his staff know a lot about Blackburn from their preparations for the abandoned game and the match itself.
“It’s not that long ago, so individually we know most of the players maybe more so than some of the other teams in the Championship in terms of seeing them up close and playing against them,” he reflected.
“They’ve changed shape since we played them last time, to be fair, and are playing a little bit differently.
“We have got fresh eyes on it and we’ll take fresh eyes on it again. I’m not sure it will be the exact same pictures as the last game, but we’ve been up there and we know what it’s like and we know how hard it is, so we’ll be ready for Tuesday.”
East Lancashire has been issued with a yellow weather warning by the Met Office with 20-40 mm of rain set to fall today, winds gusting at 22mph and the potential for flooding. The situation at Ewood Park will be monitored but with no immediate concerns whether the game will take place as it stands.
Put to him that the conditions could be very similar to the first match, McKenna was asked whether anything could be learned from the way the pitch played before it became impossible.
“I’ve not seen the forecast, I’m hoping that that was a little bit of a one-off, to be honest,” he said.
“When you get a pitch as wet as that, you need to adjust some things. It’s hard in a game like that because we weren’t expecting it.
“But for every game we check the forecast, we try and get as much information on the surface as we can and we’ll build that into our preparations, any adjustments that we need to make, so we’ll do the same for Tuesday.”
Regarding the Lancastrians’ frustrations regarding the decision to abandon the match and that perhaps adding some additional motivation, McKenna said: “You expect going up to Blackburn on a Tuesday night to be tough anyway, it’s the fourth game in a run like this, You expect it to be tough.
“I don’t think we need any more motivation to go up there. If they take extra motivation from the weather, that’s their prerogative.
“For us, we’re going up there to compete, hopefully in fair conditions across 90 minutes, and need to be ready to give it our best shot.”
The Team
McKenna says no one who has been on the sidelines recently will be ready to be involved, although Wes Burns could be in the U21s who face Leicester this evening. Jens Cajuste again looks set to miss out having turned his ankle at Hull.
Christian Walton will be in goal against one of his former loan clubs, while McKenna has options at right-back and seems likely to start Ashley Young in place of Darnell Furlong at some point in the run, perhaps behind the more defensively minded Kasey McAteer rather than Sindre Walle Egeli.
Skipper Dara O’Shea will be the right centre-half with either Greaves or Cedric Kipre alongside the Irish international and Leif Davis at left-back.
In central midfield, Azor Matusiwa and Jack Taylor again seem set to start with McKenna probably switching the three in front of them with McAteer, Chuba Akpom and Jack Clarke perhaps returning to the XI. Ivan Azon could be the number nine.
The Opposition
Blackburn are 18th in the Championship, 10 places and seven points behind the Blues.
Overall, they have won once in their last four – a 2-1 victory at Preston 10 days ago – drawing 1-1 at Wrexham on Saturday having lost 1-0 to QPR at home last Wednesday.
However, they ended October and began November winning three in a row, the home success against the Saints and away victories at Leicester, 2-0, and Bristol City, 1-0.
At home, Rovers have won only once in the league this season, a 2-1 success against Southampton at the end of October.
They have drawn once – 1-1 with Stoke City earlier the same month – losing the other six, including the last two at Ewood Park.
Only bottom side Sheffield Wednesday, two, have picked up fewer points at home than Rovers’ four.
Similarly, just the Owls, five, have scored fewer goals on their own turf than Blackburn’s seven. Overall, home and away, they are the division’s third-lowest scorers.
And just three sides, again including Wednesday, 24, as well as Norwich and Swansea, both 15, have conceded more at home than the Lancastrians’ 14.
Skipper Todd Cantwell, who netted his side’s penalty in the first match, has been out since early October with a knee injury but is closing in on a return and manager Valerien Ismael was considering the former Norwich City midfielder for a place on the bench against Wrexham.
Another midfielder, Sondre Tronstad, is out with an ankle injury, while Balazs Toth, Scott Wharton, Hayden Carter and Augustus Kargbo are long-term absentees.
History
Town have had the upper hand on Rovers historically, winning 21 games (18 in the league), losing 16 (15) and drawing 18 (17).
The sides met for the initial staging of the match in September when the game was abandoned after 80 minutes due to a waterlogged pitch with the home side 1-0 up and with the Blues down to 10 men.
Greaves was shown a straight red card four minutes after the break for hauling down Yuki Ohashi, then Rovers skipper Todd Cantwell netted a penalty on 59.
But the heavy rain had made the game increasingly farcical the longer it progressed and in the 80th minute referee Martin took the players off and then 25 minutes later abandoned it entirely
The teams last completed a match at Ewood Park in March 2024 when the Blues returned to the top of the Championship following a hard-fought 1-0 victory, their only win there in 12 visits, eight having ended in defeat.
Chaplin netted the game’s only goal in the ninth minute but Town were forced to defend resolutely to see out the three points in the second half as struggling Rovers, who felt wronged by referee Stuart Attwell after three goals were ruled out, put them under the cosh, while Town ought to have been awarded an early penalty.
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