Having welcomed Burnley to Cardiff City Stadium on the weekend, we now entertain their bitter rivals Blackburn tomorrow. For me, the three worst opposing sides we faced on our own ground last season were Peterborough, Reading and Blackburn and it shows how bad we were at home in 21/22 that the latter two sides both won 1-0! This time around, Blackburn seem to be better equipped to last the distance as top six challengers, although the league seems even more closely matched than usual this season and it wouldn’t surprise me if sides like West Brom and Middlesbrough (it won’t be with Chris Wilder in charge mind!) still end up in the top six and the likes of Reading and Wigan battling against the drop.
I reckon it was a point gained for City on Saturday and wouldn’t be surprised to see another draw tomorrow, although that would be a first for the season for Blackburn who have won six and lost five so far.
Here’s the usual seven questions about our next opponents.
60s. This full back only played for two teams, who both wore blue and were both some way from his Northumberland birthplace. Blackburn was the first of them and he would have played some First Division football for them when he broke into the team, but most of his eight years at Ewood Park were spent in the second tier. He stayed at that level when he moved a lot further away from home to represent a side that was fancied to do well at the time, but it turned out they were at the start of a decline which saw them in the basement within five years. Described as “tough tackling” by Wikipedia, he was sent off on one of his visits to Ninian Park with his manager of the time complaining that the challenge he was dismissed for did not even merit a booking. On retirement, he took over the management of the pub which stands very close to the ground where his second side still play, but can you name him?
70s. An unlucky footballer, this forward scored ninety nine Football League goals in his career and never won a cap for his adopted country although he was once stood on the touchline ready to come on for his debut in a very important game, when his team scored the only goal and he was told to sit back on the bench. He started off in a city whose team has never experienced top flight football and, come to think off it, they’ve not played much in the second level either. There was little in his record at this team to suggest that he would be the success he turned out to be at his second club, which was close by to his first one. Three quarters of his goals came for this, seaside, club with one of them coming in a losing cause at Ninian Park. His transfer to Blackburn was seen as a step up for him, but, although he was a pretty regular starter in his one season at Ewood Park, just six goals meant that he was soon on the move again – this time, having spent much of his career wearing stripes, he ended it with a team which wears hoops these days. Do you know who he is?
80s. Blackburn Rovers’ version of Thought for the Day maybe?
90s. How a do0lally underdog could be described perhaps?
00s. So nearly doubles down on North initially to end up with a centreback. (4,6)
10s. Manchester United. Leicester, Derby and Rangers – how is that list relevant to a player who appeared for both City and Blackburn during this decade?
20s. Jan Poortvliet played in the 1978 World Cup Final and lost his first game as Southampton manager in August 2008 by 2-1 at Ninian Park, he also has a nephew who played for Blackburn last season, who is he?
Answers
60. Billy Wilson made his debut for Blackburn in 1964 and played nearly two hundred and fifty times in the league for them before signing for Portsmouth. Wilson made close to two hundred league appearances for Pompey and one of them, in September 1973, saw him dismissed by referee Ray Toseland in a 1-1 draw at Ninian Park. Wilson retired in 1979 and was landlord of the Pompey public house just outside Fratton Park for a while.
70s. Jack Lewis started off at Lincoln City, but it was at Grimsby that he made his reputation, scoring seventy four league goals in over two hundred and fifty appearances. His time with Blackburn was not as successful and he ended his Football League career at Doncaster. Lewis was a Wales under 23 international and was named as a substitute for their vital full international game with Austria in November 1975 at Wrexham when they needed a win to qualify for the latter stages of the equivalent of the Euros – Lewis was just about to come on for his debut when Arfon Griffiths scored the only goal of the game and he never got to get his full Welsh cap.
80s. Christian Dailly.
90s. David Batty.
00s. Ryan Nelson.
10s. It’s a list of the clubs Tom Lawrence has had permanent contracts with, he’s also had plenty of loan moves’ including ones to Blackburn and City in 15/16 when he was with Leicester.
20s.Jan Paul Van Hecke played thirty one times for Blackburn last season while on loan from Brighton.