Blackburn Rovers (a); The Review

Biggest positive

Having leaked four pretty poor goals over our previous two games, how pleasing to keep a clean sheet in this one, even with our most experienced defender sat watching on his sofa at home.

Weekend whinge

Blackburn kicking us off the park – quite literally, in the case of Emi Buendia and Mo Leitner. For 85 minutes it was an effective tactic, and then it wasn’t. Shame. Fair play to Daniel Farke for keeping things subtle in the post-match chat: “No complaints about the style of Blackburn, we would probably try to do the same if we faced a Premier League side in the FA Cup, to break the rhythm.”

Moment of the match

A shuffle of the feet and a perfectly-weighted ball from Mario Vrancic, the despairing lunge of a Blackburn defender, a razor-sharp pass from Onel Hernandez, and Teemu Pukki was there – he’s always there – with a slam-dunk of a finish, before wheeling off to celebrate as the blue and white shirts collapsed behind him.

Random star performer

Ben Godfrey, who was not only immense at centre-back in the prolonged absence of Timm Klose, but also forced the Blackburn keeper into a reaction save with a goal-bound bullet header and actually had the ball in the net on two occasions. OK, they were disallowed – but he’s getting into the right positions to be a real danger from set-pieces, and when he does score one, his facial expression in the celebration photographs – already pretty intense when it’s a team-mate scoring – is going to be something else. Passion!!

Farke watch

His Bundesliga-esque post-victory solo cheer is most definitely “a thing” now, with the arms in the away end wobbling in anticipation and the “woaaaahhh”s building to a crescendo as the main man approached the away end. Now he needs to start getting the whole team organised to do it.

Atmosphere rating

For a 450-mile round trip from Norwich three days before Christmas, with a train strike making public transport travel in and out of Blackburn from anywhere a monumental headache, 1,272 away fans was a great turnout.

A presumably recent change of arrangements saw the bulk of the away support housed in the upper tier of an otherwise empty stand, detached from the action on the pitch, from any interaction with the home fans, and in particular from our fellow away fans with access needs at the front of the lower tier. This appears to be a bit of a creeping trend across the leagues, and if the EFL and Premier League are as serious as they profess to be about inclusion and equality they really should be doing more to discourage such a practice by their member clubs – or even legislating against it.

On another note, how on earth is West Brom not sold out yet? lb20 for adults for one of the best away trips in the league and what will be a huge top-of-the-table clash – get those tickets snapped up, because at the moment, following Norwich away is a very fun bandwagon to be a part of.

Summary

It’s a statement of fact that there’s no better feeling than singing “Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, oh what fun it is to see Norwich win away”, and when it comes in the form of a late winner to send us back to the top of the league, all the better. This might look on paper (specifically, the Yorkshire Post) to have been a bit of a smash-and-grab, but it really wasn’t – the winner was the culmination of layer upon layer of patient pressure, as week after week we have the fitness and mentality to keep the opposition pinned in their own half for the last 20 minutes. Say it quietly, but this is the kind of result promotions are made of. Four points from this week’s pair of tough away trips is a fantastic return, and now we’re Driving Home For (Two Games Over) Christmas. Have a good one and OTBC.