We were given a lesson in what we need to survive in the Premier League at Ewood Park as a belated Christmas present from Mark Hughes. It was a nice move, it’s just a shame we had to endure an insipid 90 minutes as part of the education.

The easiest example would be to pick out the two penalties. Dean Whitehead’s was hit so weakly that Brad Friedel had time to run to the bench and celebrate with the coaching staff before jogging back to his penalty area to save to his left. In contrast, Benni McCarthy hit his so hard that it nearly broke the net, and left Gordon with absolutely no chance.

For what it’s worth, the referee seemed to get most decisions on the night correct, so we can’t blame officiating for the loss. Our penalty was blatant, theirs was soft but not unjust. Dwight Yorke deserved his marching orders, another part of our Ewood education.

Whereas Blackburn had a similar ageing clogger in midfield in the shape of Tugay, by the end of the match the Turk was still pulling the strings in their midfield. He rarely ventured out of the centre circle for 90 minutes, and let the rest of midfield do the legwork for him. Yorke chased lost causes all night, without the legs to do so, and was cautioned twice when trying to catch up with legs that were much faster than his.

Even the supporters gave us a lesson in how to get nasty off the field. When we were chasing the game and the ball ran out of play, a section of dickheads in their ancient stand hung onto the ball until police and stewards had to intervene to retrieve it. Maybe Blackburn could learn more from this one; if your fans are morons, buy a couple of extra match balls so there’s less pissing about.

Whilst away games like this aren’t going to influence our position too much, it’s easy to see that these sorts of experiences are beginning to shape our season. Had Deano converted the penalty, we could have hung on for the win and given ourselves some breathing space, as well as taking the pressure off Roy Keane to plug the obvious holes.

We need a winger, a central midfielder, a striker, at least one full back and a central defender. Can we buy all of these for £20m? I doubt it, which is making our total spending for the season look very poor indeed.

The gaffer’s tactical nous is starting to look dodgy. Our plan A was to spend the first half with only Kenwyne Jones up front. When he went off injured at the interval, plan B appeared to be playing the second half without anyone up front. By the time Cole and Waghorn came on they had little chance of influencing the play.

To conclude, there’s much to be done over the next month. We need half a dozen players but, more than anything, we need to learn from games like these. It doesn’t look like being an enjoyable few months ahead.

Final Score: 0-1

Man Of The Match: Danny Higginbotham. No better than anyone else, but reasonably solid and no worse than anyone else, either.

Andy Fury

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