Preview

Despite stories of a injury crisis and the team being worn out already, I’m feeling good about this afternoon’s game. It looks like Cattermole will be out and maybe Cana but Steed should return and his link play with Bent is going to be crucial this season as we saw after five minutes against Bolton. There’s been a bit of a cloud hanging over me since the Chelsea match and their quick passing game had us chasing shadows by the sound of it but Blackburn ain’t Chelsea and I think Jones and Bent will cause their defence plenty of problems. I predict 2-0 to us.

The Match

The team news was great with Cana and Cattermole in the starting line-up after all along with Steed. I’d forgotten about Diouf playing for Blackburn and was in no doubt the crowd would have a few words to say to him. I’d thought he looked great for Bolton and he did show some potential for us but never really produced the goods while he had a few tarty things to say after he left.

I got Radio Newcastle online a few minutes before kick-off and the sun came out. The first thing I heard was that Ferdinand avoided looking at Diouf as the handshakes were being made. Blackburn dominated the early exchanges and had the ball in the net after two successive corners but it was ruled out for a handball. By the ten-minute mark we’d fought our way back into it and then Di Santo went off injured after going close, to be replaced by Kalinic. The size of the Blackburn players was causing us problems and Fulop was sounding unusually shaky.

They forced their fifth corner and as it was cleared Givet put them one-up with a good shot from distance after twenty minutes. They were closing us down well and our midfield wasn’t creating much for Bent and Jones. It was looking grim after half an hour but the home fans were still in good voice and suddenly we were level after Steed found Jones and he did well to lift it over the advancing Robinson. We brightened considerably after that and Cattermole especially was rousing the fans with his battling efforts. Blackburn continued to pile up their corner tally and they sounded dangerous every time they crowded our box. Cattermole was yellow-carded in stoppage-time. Well, one in three is less than some expected of him. At half-time it was 1-0 and it had been a struggle.

As we kicked off for the second-half Olsen had replaced Nelson for Blackburn while we were unchanged. I could see Blackburn scoring again and my previous thoughts of victory were seeming too hopeful. Anyway, we were making a brighter start than we had in the first-half and after great work by Cattermole, Kewyne headed us into the lead after about ten minutes. Blackburn did get the ball in our net soon after but thankfully it was ruled out as Samba was offside. Cue bottle-kicking by a furious, red-faced Big Sam. Nos came on for a bewildered-sounding McCartney and I was pleased as despite his well-known failings, I like Nos a lot and he always gives his all.

McCartney went straight down the tunnel in high dudgeon and there must be some background there. Against a team of big battlers like Blackburn we needed our own fighters. The crowd was announced – 37,000, which was a bit disappointing, but two home games in four days is a fair outlay in these troubled times. Besides, Blackburn are not going to pack the neutrals in anywhere. Benni McCarthy came on for Diouf with twenty minutes left and there were a fair few whistles along with the ‘Diouf!’ cry as he went off. I thought they’d equalized when a free-kick came off the underside of the bar before Cana got it away.

I couldn’t sit down after that and began pacing around and fiddling about with anything to hand with one eye on the clock. With around ten minutes left Malbranque, who’d been my audio man of the match, was replaced by Henderson and I felt happy enough to hear him come on as he’s quickly shown that, like Leadbitter, he can compete with the best. Just after four minutes of stoppage-time were announced Campbell came on for Bent, to applause all round. After the four minutes were up Kalinic shot... and the online connection went off for thirty seconds before service was resumed and he’d clearly missed a good chance to equalize. He had a nightmare, thank God.

So it ended in a 2-1 win and this was a great result, though it was hardly a vintage match. This showed the character of our team, which was important against a big, in-your-goalkeeper’s-face side like Blackburn. We played Blackburn five times last season and only beat them once and I sincerely hope we only have to play them once more this season but we’ve shown that we’re a better side than them this time round as long as we can manage to play our skilful style. Two wins in three games, our best Premier start, is fine with me and we’ve already put some clear water between ourselves and the likes of Portsmouth and Bolton.

I just saw that Calum Davenport, who I thought did well for us on the whole when he was on loan last season, has been seriously injured in an attack so let’s wish him a speedy recovery. See you at Norwich on Monday, I just hope it doesn’t go to extra-time as the last train to London leaves at 22.00.

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