FAN’S VIEW: 24/25 – No.31: BLACKBURN AT HOME

OXFORD UNITED 1 BLACKBURN ROVERS 0

I keep saying it. We are a Championship team. Promotion last season ensured that. But when certain things happen there’s talk of properly belonging. Not just there to make the numbers up and see how it goes. Particularly given that by general consensus we went up a year earlier than expected. I don’t think there has ever been the slightest hint that the owners would not give the backing needed. Remember the aim is to become and remain one of the top 30 clubs in the country.

Since the last FV we’ve brought in two more permanent signings. Tom Bradshaw and Michal Helik. For me these, along with Ole Romney and Alex Matos, are real statements of intent. An attempt to raise the overall standard. For me that proves we’re definitely a “proper” Championship club. I wonder if Wycombe fans thought the same in 20/21 and Burton fans in 16/17 and 17/18.

Our recent home matchday routine has been to get there very early, park behind the East stand and pick up any tickets ordered online before eating some sarnies in the car. At about 12:45, having collected my Stoke ticket, I was aware of a big fella in an Oxford tracksuit. It took me a second or two to twig that it was Helik. Immediately I knew that the guy had presence. You could feel it. He was being looked after by Beano and was signing autographs and having pictures taken with excited fans – not all of them young ones. I then spotted Bradshaw doing the same.

This set my expectations even higher. I knew then that we would be seeing these guys play today.

It’s one thing though to bring in players that on paper should improve the quality of the team. It’s what happens on the pitch that is the acid test.

That was passed with flying colours. This was probably our best performance of the season. Blackburn came here in fifth place and in the last 12 games had kept 7 clean sheets, letting in just six goals. They hadn’t been prolific at the other end though, averaging 1.17 goals a game scored in that period.

We usually start quite tentatively, trying to keep the ball without forcing anything. This was different. We began on the front foot taking the game to the visitors as we attacked, as usual, the fence end. When they had the ball at the back we harried and refused to allow them to settle.

After good work by Siriki Dembele, a shot on the turn by Ruben Rodrigues was parried into the danger zone right in front of his goal but a Blackburn boot got the ball away.

Not long after Mark Harris’s side footed attempt from a Greg Leigh cross was straight at keeper Aynsley Pears.

We did get the ball beyond Pears in the first half but it was ruled out for offside. Dembele struck a low hard shot which the Rovers stopper got an arm to but only sent the ball of few feet directly upwards. From our vantage point we thought it was in. Both RR and Harris rushed in to convert. I don’t know which one got the touch. RR was onside but Harris marginally off. Whether it was the latter or not who prodded home is irrelevant – he was on the premises and involved so to rule it out was the correct call in my opinion.

As the half wore on Blackburn got back into it and played some tidy football. The last ditch stick out of a leg from Jamie Cumming for a somewhat awkward but effective save prevented us from going behind.

After the break we got back on top again and if anything were more dominant than we had been in the first period, but the usual concern was there. Would we rue missed chances? We weren’t striking the ball cleanly when aiming for goal.

That was until midway through the half. Perhaps what we needed was a dead ball which would be easier to hit. There are times when I think Dembele holds on to the ball too long and loses it when he should be making a pass but that’s what players like him do. Risk and reward. He’s a tricky customer make no mistake and defenders must hate playing against him. He created a lot. It was his run that was stopped by a foul just outside the penalty area that produced the free-kick which Cameron Brannagan hammered into the roof of the net. A video taken from the away end shows quite some deflection which I had no idea about in the SSU.

Before this we’d had a great chance to go one up when Harris just side footed at Pears after he’d been set up by Dembele.  

It’s a given that it will get a bit nervy at the end with just a one goal advantage but I’ve got much more faith in us now to shut out the opposition at such times than when we were on that awful run under Des. That said, Blackburn did have a very presentable chance to nick a point as they gave it a bit of a go at the death. It was missed. I’m now concluding game after game that the finishing in tier two mostly isn’t as good as I first thought. A team doesn’t get punished every time an opponent has a clear sight of goal. Best not to allow that sight in the first place obviously, because sometimes the attempts will be successful.

One unique tactic Blackburn tried – and failed with – from corners was to get the players they had loaded in the box to form a running circle around our bunched defenders like Native Americans ambushing a wagon train in a black and white Western.  

The way Helik fitted in without having trained bodes very well. The presence he had outside the ground was similarly evident on the field of play too. He looks to be a leader and immediately was organising. He had a battle on his hands up against Makhtar Gueye who was a really big lad himself and came out of it very well.

Alongside him Ciaron Brown is so solid game after game. Quite probably player of the season so far. Any thoughts that he might not be up to Championship standard in the long term seem very silly now.

Both full-backs were really good too and Leigh ticked off another game where he showed he can defend.

In front of that back four we’ve got Cameron Brannagan and Will Vaulks. A partnership that is working very well. Either can be the one dropping deep to pick the ball up. It’s clear that Brannagan is now fitter than he was following his injury and Vaulks does so much intercepting and disrupting his value to us currently possibly gets overlooked. Still a potential cock up there though but the positives are making the negatives almost non-existent.

The work rate of Rodrigues should not be underestimated either. He is instrumental in us keeping our shape.

So, we had a solidarity that Blackburn could not break. That’s a building block for a good football team. Every sensible football fan should know that. Gary Rowett has brought that to the club. It’s been said his approach is “pragmatic” and “he’s the man to keep you up but the football will be boring”.

Boring? Don’t get that at all. How the **** can anyone claim we’re boring when we’ve got Dembele and Przemyslaw Placheta in the side? Both entertainers. Twice PP produced passes which consisted of a drag back with one foot and back heel with the other in the tightest of spaces. Don’t think I’ve seen anything like that before. Looking on social media Blackburn fans though PP was the danger man and there was one comment that our wide men were better than theirs.

Harris put in his usual shift for 71 minutes to be replaced by Bradshaw who looked incredibly lively in closing down defenders. I can see why Dane Scarlett has returned to Spurs. He wasn’t going to be getting much game time. “Recalled” by his parent club apparently not sent back by us. There were times when I thought he might be a valuable asset getting a fair few goals from inside the box but have now concluded he doesn’t look Championship standard. Strikers that don’t work effectively outside the box are a luxury that can’t be afforded. He appeared too slow but it should not be forgotten that he did score four goals for us in a period of seven games. It’s not as if we’ve got a prolific forward. Scarlett is our second highest scorer. Perhaps he’ll resurface at another club at our level or maybe League One. Good luck to the lad.

Whilst it might be a bit hard to believe that Luton made it to the Premier League for the 23/24 season I find it even harder to understand why they are now second bottom of the current table. I keep thinking they’ve got to come good, they’ve got some good strong direct attacking players. But this far into the season they have not come good. This worries me.

Away from home they’ve won one, drawn one and lost 11. This worries me. It shouldn’t though, should it? Not long ago we were bottom of the form table (last six games). We’re now joint top with Leeds. What a turnaround. Long may it continue. For that to happen of course we’ve got to produce the goods time and time again because it is true that there are no easy games, there really aren’t.