FAN’S VIEW: 24/25 – No.5: BLACKBURN AWAY

Our opponents

Blackburn got promoted from Division 2 (yes that’s what the Championship was called back then) in 1991/92 so were members of the Premier League in its inaugural season. They finished 4^th, then runners up and the season after, 1994/95, won it.

Their seven year run in the top flight ended in 1998/99 when they finished 19^th. 

It took them only two seasons to go back up when they were runners up in Division 1 (still not called the Championship) in 2000/01.

They remained at the highest level for eleven seasons but never threatened to do what they’d done a few years earlier, sixth being their highest finishing position which they achieved in 2002/03 and 2005/06.

Since relegation in 2010/11 they have not returned to the Premier League spending all but one season in the Championship, which is what tier two has been branded as since 2004/05.

After relegation to League One in 2016/17 they made a swift return to the division above finishing second. On the final day of that season they were at home to the Mighty Yellows. Already promoted, they were two points behind Wigan with an inferior goal difference. The only way they could take the title would be to beat us – which they did 2-1 although they only got the winner with about a quarter of an hour to go – and for Wigan to lose. They didn’t.

What sticks in my mind about the match more than anything else was the pitch invasion before it was over. The abusive and provocative gestures to our travelling fans – only a minority but significant numbers. Morons. And the way the stewards just let it happen with no noticeable recriminations. I’ve not forgotten. Some places I warm to; not this one.

Some of our line-up that day makes interesting reading. Malachi Napa played the entire game. Poor lad broke his leg in 2019. We released him in 2021 and since then he’s been around the non-league scene, currently with Isthmian Premier outfit Billericay Town. And from the official OUFC match report: “United ended the season with the encouraging sight of 17-year-old striker Owen James making his first appearance from the bench for the last ten minutes; there will be plenty more to come from him.” James came on in the 83^rd minute and was never seen again in an Oxford shirt. Loaned out to non-league clubs and released at the end of the 2019/20 season. Last heard of at Stratford Town FC in the Southern League.

It’s so so difficult to make it in the world of professional football. Obviously I have huge admiration for those that do make the grade but when I watch semi-professional matches there are times when I am really impressed with the show that those guys put on and can’t help thinking what might have been.

But back to Rovers. The Venkys took over in 2010. They were the first Indian company to own a Premier League side. Soon they were owning a Championship side. What does an Indian poultry giant know about English football, let alone running a club in the top two divisions? Answers on the back of a chicken nugget.

From what I can gather the fans were initially really pissed off with them as the team’s form declined but then came a kind of acceptance that they were covering big losses year after year. Bet many of them have asked, why? I can’t get my head round it.

This financial support which could never be taken for granted is under quite a threat at present. The Indian government have seized assets from the Venkys parent company as part of a tax dispute arising from the purchase of a £7.3m mansion 13 miles from Ewood Park. India is quite strict over money leaving the country for overseas investment.

Their latest accounts to y/e June 23, which of course doesn’t include last season, shows how quickly things can change at a club. Jon Dahl Tomasson joined as manager on 14 June 2022. There’s reference to his “exciting brand of modern and fluid football.” Blackburn missed out on the play-offs only on goal difference.

Tomasson left the club on 9 February this year supposedly by “mutual consent” although it has been reported he quit because he was tired of seeing his budget repeatedly cut. A couple of weeks later Tomasson was appointed as head coach of the Swedish national team.

Those accounts show turnover of £21m and a loss before tax of £20.9m. The sum spent on wages and salaries was £25.8m. That’s 123% of turnover. Quite a scary figure but that’s less than in 21/22 when it was 147%.  In 2019/20 it had been 190%. Outrageous.

The club had net current liabilities of £146.5m. The sum owed to the Venkys was £123m.

They appeared on live TV 23 times. A year earlier it had only been 11. And now we have the new TV deal. Wall to wall live football including us.

They finished last season just three points above the drop zone in 19^th position. They’ve started this one well though under John Eustace who took over immediately on Tomasson’s departure. They beat Derby 4-2 at home on opening day then followed that up by hammering Stockport away in the Carabao Cup. Last weekend they drew at Norwich 2-2. I watched the game against the Rams on TV (of course it was on TV, why wouldn’t it be?) and was mightily impressed with Rovers slick and incisive attacking play but perhaps not so much with their defending. That could be the story of many of our opponents this season. 

The usual question – how big? Blackburn are bigger than us obviously but on closer inspection of their attendances probably not as big as I thought they were. When we last visited there were 27,600 present but it was a big day out for the young part-timers. Last season they had the second lowest average in the division at 15,583. That surprised me but it does highlight what we’re up against. The Kassam only holds approx. 12k and the plan for the Triangle is 16k.

Ticket tales

I was one of the 1000 who managed to get an “away membership”. That was by no means straightforward. My choice though because I never wanted to end up as I had when the Peterborough fiasco unfolded and “computer says NO”. So basically that adds £1.30 to each away game.

Ticket details for the Blackburn game were announced just 12 days before the match. I know this all has to be done in liaison with the home team but seems quite short notice to me and shows little thought for the paying spectators, the life blood of our beautiful game.

Having paid the away membership I thought it would make sense to use the 24 hour window I had before season ticket holders could pile in even though I was totally confident we wouldn’t sell our entire allocation. Our “initial” allocation was 2,980. I did that online on Monday evening and for the privilege paid £2 admin fee opting for “collection.”  Another £2 postage therefore saved. Over a season excluding cup games one could end up paying an additional £92 on top of the price of away tickets.

Anyway, the following day before the Peterborough game I joined the queue at the right hand window to collect my Blackburn ticket. The ticket lady flipped through the envelopes and said “we’ve not done it yet”.  I asked what happens now and was told that if I queue at one of the other windows they “might be able to do it for me”. So that’s what I did. Having explained the situation another lady, clearly a bit stressed, said we’re really busy and there’s only two of us work in the office but she agreed to do it for me. I ended up giving her my fan number and she printed a ticket off. Later I noticed it was an adult ticket. I’d paid the reduced price for an old git. Hope the club has not lost a fiver because of this.

But here’s the ridiculous thing – if I’d not paid for an away membership and not booked the ticket online thus saving £2.30, as a season ticket holder I could just have queued, asked for a ticket and paid no add-ons. It would have been printed there and then.

It really is shambolic. I must add that I have nothing but praise for the ticket office staff. It’s the decisions that are made higher up the line and the appalling systems they have to use that are the problem.

Ticket bloody Master. I got an email from them confirming the booking for this game which I’ll admit I didn’t read until after the event. “Your order included some items that can be downloaded to your iPhone Or Android Device. To Download your tickets use the corresponding icon below each ticket.” Buttons for adding to an Apple or Google wallet were available. Yet a digital ticket was never given as an option.

I’ve recently bought tickets for the North Wall Arts Centre on-line. As smooth as you like. Site didn’t crash. No booking fee. Tickets downloaded to my phone in an instant.

BLACKBURN ROVERS 2 OXFORD UNITED 1

Rain with the resultant spray reducing visibility and an accident on the M6 initially made the journey up quite a miserable one but having decided to abandon the motorway network we struck gold. The sun came out, the views into valleys were quite stunning as we passed through a few villages and then before us a big sign, Rossendale Brewery, outside the Griffin Inn in Haslingden. Of course we stopped. Would have been rude not to. They don’t normally open until 2 o’clock but it being a thriving community pub there were kids’ activities taking place and we were welcomed in. I think a chef was trying to teach the little darlings how to make pizzas. Wasn’t paying much attention, my eyes were on the seven hand pumps, each one offering a beer brewed on the premises. Absolute quality it was. £7.30 for two pints. Don’t get such things down south.

Then into the centre of Blackburn, more uncharted territory for me, to the Drummer’s Arms which had been chosen as the designated meeting point. The beer was even cheaper here and the standard equally as impressive as that we’d sampled not half an hour earlier. The bar staff could not have been friendlier and a Manchester based fellow Oxford fan told me that when he walked into the establishment a Blackburn fan he’d never met before insisted on buying the beers.

My impression of the town was rapidly changing and I soon realised that this was much more likely the real Blackburn than the one I’d witnessed in 2018 when truth be told I put the blinkers on. The glory hunting arseholes weren’t about this time. The gate was 12,831 down on our previous visit. At 14,769 it was in fact the lowest in the Championship this weekend. We contributed 1,212 to that figure. I’m trying to work out if that’s good, okay or poor. This wasn’t live on TV although it is quite a distance. Derby though took 3,715 for the season’s opener on a Friday night in front of the Sky cameras.

Parking up an old fella (he looked quite old, about my age) who was looking after an even older fella who I think was his Dad, helpfully warned about the double yellow lines. Our view was that we’d be fine because they’d worn away. On the way back after the game we came across the pair again. He thought that we’d played quite well, particularly in the first half when we’d passed it around and that we wouldn’t go down. I got the feeling that they’d been going to football together for years but that it was now increasingly hard work. The older gentleman was very slow and at no stage made any effort to join in our very brief conversation. He probably wasn’t the man he used to be but the experience of still getting to Ewood Park with his son will have deep significance.

Football at this level is as most of us suspected it would be. A whole new experience.

What are we away from home, gallant losers? Two games played but no points. Only one goal in it each time. We’re not far short, but short is short. Early days though and this time we were without two key players in Elliott Moore and Cameron Brannagan.

I’m proud of my team for what they’re putting in at the moment. Very proud. The future looks bright but it’s going to be bloody hard work game in game out and over 90 minutes I thought Blackburn shaded it. Overall man for man they were probably just that little bit more skilful than we were. There could be little argument if the game had been drawn though.

The stats tell of a close game. We had 52.6% possession. Our total number of shots was 12 with three on target and theirs were 18 and four. A big disparity though was the number of touches in the box. With 36 they achieved more than double our 15.

In the first half we had chances that we should really have done better with before we took the lead.

Tyler Goodrham, who looked every bit a Championship player, set Matt Phillips up on the right after a strong run through the centre of the park. Our experienced winger should really have let rip with his right but instead pulled the ball back onto his left. Aynsley Pears got down low to keep the ball out with a decent enough save.

Idris El Mizouni had a sitter of a header set up for him by a cross from Phillips but his effort was woeful.

Goodrham went very close before we opened the scoring with a wonder goal out of nowhere. A Jamie Cumming clearance was chested back by Phillips to Mark Harris midway in our opponents’ half. Sparky hit it on the volley as sweetly as sweet could be. It was a stunning effort. I thought Harris had an exceptional game. Not just the goal and his usual work rate but he was quite clever on the ball with his control and passing. 

Having scored in the 44^th minute we should have gone in at the break a goal up but we didn’t. In the second minute of added time our lead was gone.

I thought we were quite guilty at times of allowing crosses to come in and not getting close enough to the blue and white shirts. Not having a battling Brannagan on the park didn’t help.

On this occasion I thought Phillips should have done more to prevent the ball being delivered. We never properly got the ball away. There was no let’s get there first and smash it away mentality. Sensibly done of course so as not to concede a penalty. Peter Kioso goes to ground too easily for my liking and on this showing was defensively lacking. For a defender that’s a bit worrying. But once more, early days. He must have something if we paid £600k for him. These quoted sums on the internet may obviously be way out. There was a bit of hesitancy between him and Harris and instead of someone taking charge we fumbled about and the despairing hand of Cumming couldn’t keep Joe Rankin-Costello’s shot out.

Goodrham, who had a shot go just wide in the first half, had another good attempt in the second when he struck a cut back corner on target but after the break I thought the hosts looked a little more likely to get the winner if there was to be one.

With seven minutes of the 90 left they got it. It was one of those goals we should not have let happen.  We lost a midfield battle. Perhaps we were a bit all over the place having just made two substitutions but again I’m thinking if only Cam had been on the premises. Blackburn pushed the ball out wide. Kioso made no effort to get close to the man and then stood still as he rolled the ball past him. I also thought Will Vaulks’s defensive contribution was really lacking in this. He looked lost and confused and didn’t trouble the scorer Arnor Sigurdsson one bit as he bent the winner in off the post.

I’m afraid Vaulks disappointed me. I seem to remember him giving the ball away a bit and his corners when we were pushing for an equaliser right at the end were not good enough by any stretch of the imagination. Once more I’ll say it, early days.

Some of the 1212 yellows present