Saturday, March 18, 2006
Blackburn 3 Boro 2
It could have been so much better in the league this season. A point never better demonstrated than in our last two away games at Charlton and today at Blackburn Rovers - two games that we should have won, but in the end didn't even get a draw out of. Not 6 points, not 2 points for trying, nil points - and that's our season!Blackburn have gone on a great run since beating us twice at the turn of the year and must have felt good about facing us again, despite our terrific cup runs. Craig Bellemy was touted pre-match as their biggest threat and so it proved, with 2 top notch goals sandwiched either side of a soft free kick from Pederson. Defensively, then, we have gone back to the bad old days of conceding too many in unnecessary circumstances. When you add to it all that their winner came when down to ten men, you just want the season to end now so we can regroup, sign some new names to strengthen the backline and start again from scratch. Going forward has not really been a problem, however, and today was no different with it being Viduka's turn to shine: three awesome goals in three consecutive games for the Aussie, who is hitting form at a key time for us. Rochemback also doubled his total with a fine effort to draw the game level with more than twenty minutes to go, but it was not to be.
It is worrying not to be able to tie up a game against ten men, and a timely reminder that with this squad any kind of complacency can lead to suicide. The top ten now seems a very long way off. But at least the relegation zone is as equally unlikely with a good ten point cushion and the bottom four all looking dreadful at the moment. To the cups our focus goes then, and first up is a quick rematch at the Valley against Charlton. There are some big teams left in the hat, but I don't count Charlton as one of them, to be honest - they are very beatable and with the right team selection and attitude I fancy us to win and win well to make it to the semis. Big game. Very exciting to be in the shake-up at the business end.
My MOTM: James Morrison, back with avengeance, picking up where he left off by being involved in everything we did right.
