Apologies if you don’t watch Strictly Come Dancing, but today was a bit like Chelsee Healey – not very pretty to look at, but we got there in the end.

The rumours about Bendtner’s fitness (at least he has an excuse for not needing the shower this week) turned out to be true, so we had the unexpected joy of seeing Wickham back and running this year. No Turner either, nor Cattermole, so another couple of fairly obvious changes. Still no place for goal machine Noble, though.

Westy
O’Shea Bramble Brown Bards
Larsson Vaughan Colback Sess Rico
Wickham

The game started fairly evenly, with both sides breaking forward, and Wickham covering a lot of ground. Bramble and Brown had the central area sewn up, and we almost got ahead when Bards took a pass from Larsson and shot wide, but after about twenty minutes the Swede gave away a free kick. Pedersen flung in a cross which Samba got his head to, but Westy’s save only fell to Vukvevic who nodded in from close range -despite his ridiculous facemask. Damn and blast, we said. With Rico and Larsson out wide, we’d been looking quite decent and carrying a proper shape, but when you’re on a losing run, it doesn’t always work for you.

We could have been back on terms when Rico got on the end of a Sess cross, but Robinson was equal to his effort. Damn and blast, we said. Vaughan was looking neat and tidy, allowing Colback to do what he does best – win the ball and give it short. Sess and Wickham fired wide, while Blackburn in general and Samba in particular gobbled up what we threw in, with the big defender even knocking Westy over as he put the ball in the net – no goal for a fairly obvious foul.

A goal down at the break was a bit against the run of things, and the crowd didn’t let it get them down. Plenty of noise for Mr O’Neill’s first game in charge, plenty of effort from the players, but it looked like being one of those afternoons when things just didn’t go out way. Whaever we did, it didn’t seem to go our way. Rico managed to force a save out of Robinson before hitting the post. With fifteen or so to go, Colback and Wickham were replaced by Ji and McLean. Ji was his usual energetic self, while McLean hugged the left touchline to great effect. Blackburn seemed unable to deal with his presence on the wing – both nippy and physical, a real handful. Sess went acrobatically close with an overhead effort, but we were thinking the worst when the ball fell to Vaughan 25 yards out, and he had time to set himself nicely to whack it in off the outside of his left boot.

Get in, we said, maybe we can win this.

As time wore on, Blackburn lost Jason Lowe to injury in a rare attack, and we thought that we’d have to settle for a point until Bardsley tried to feed McLean, and a Blackburn hand stopped the ball. Well, you know what Larsson does with dead balls (apart from penalties, that is). He whipped it in, the net rippled, and we kissed each other in the stands. Whoopee, take that, and count the seconds left on the clock – maybe a minute left of the three added. Better late than never.

So another debut win for Mr O’Neill, and I doubt if he’s had one left so late. Hard work all round, a solid return from Bramble, and a really creative game from Vaughan. O’Shea needs to really up his passing game, although at thirty odd it’s probably a bit late to be asking him to do that. Wickham looked the business, chasing and being there for crosses (Mr Bendtner take note), while we held our shape well. McLean should have earned himself a start, as Mr O’Neill likes a left winger, and Larsson struck the ball well all afternoon.

Man of the Match? Vaughan. Neat, tidy, always looking to play in a killer pass, and he hit that wonderful equaliser. And a big shout to the crowd as well – we love a new manager, and we bellowed our lungs out for him today.

Keep the Faith

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