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Football: Rovers losing their heads at wrong time

Blackburn Rovers 1 Liverpool 3

Guy Hodgson
Sunday 25 April 1999 23:02 BST
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IT IS only four seasons since Blackburn Rovers won the Premiership and just three since they were in the Champions' League. Keep a hold of that because it is hard to equate the the club's current position and that recent past. At the moment it is difficult to imagine them winning a match never mind titles.

Two sounds emanated from Ewood Park during their defeat on Saturday. An alarm rang in the Jack Walker Stand with exquisite timing given what was happening and the visiting supporters sang "Going down and you've bust the bank", prompting the thought that the bell and the yell were tolling for Blackburn.

Locked in the bottom four with seven points from their last 10 matches it is hard to be optimistic and if they lose to fellow strugglers Charlton next Saturday it will be harder still. The house that Jack built is dismantling like it was constructed of cards.

It is not due to lack of money as the Liverpool supporters correctly, if crudely, surmised. Blackburn have been an injury waiting to happen since they pipped Manchester United for the championship in 1994-5, but even with a sick list to rival the National Health Service Brian Kidd could still field a team that included three players who he himself bought for more than pounds 12m. It is composure, not cash, they need.

Some teams suggest relegation by their manner and Blackburn's haphazard defending reeked of dwindling confidence and a desperate urgency not to make a mistake. Cool heads are the main antidote to that and even their manager surrendered his as the shambles unfolded on the pitch.

Kidd, remember, was the calm hand who frequently pulled Alex Ferguson away from confrontation when he was assistant manager at Old Trafford, but on Saturday it was he who needed to be held back when he clashed with Liverpool's assistant manager, Phil Thompson.

A policewoman, Tony Parkes and Brian McClair were needed to restrain Kidd after Jason McAteer fouled Karlheinz Riedle after 28 minutes and Thompson had shouted something to the referee. Neither was forthcoming about the argument and the Liverpool man made a point of apologising soon afterwards, but it was hardly edifying or did not present the image of calm that is needed in Blackburn's position.

"You'll have to ask Phil Thompson what it was about, I'm ducking the issue," Kidd said while his counterpart, Gerard Houllier, attributed it to a misunderstanding. "I found it amusing," he said. "It was like Manchester United versus Liverpool from the old days."

Kidd's lack of cold calculation was mirrored on the pitch because Blackburn's panic handed Liverpool the points as surely as if they had put a ribbon and a gift tag on them. They began well, then were submerged by rubble of errors.

The first was so ghastly you wondered if you were seeing things correctly. Darren Peacock has been one of Roy Hodgson's better acquisitions this season, and not only because he did not cost anything, but he seemed to lose his bearings and all sense when he attempted a back-pass after 22 minutes.

It was so inaccurate it almost became a cross to Steve McManaman, who was still in the Blackburn area from the preceding attack, and it was far enough away from John Filan that the goalkeeper had to make a diving save. When the ball bounced from his grasp an almost embarrassed McManaman swept it into the net.

Eight minutes later Jamie Redknapp, the game's principal source of creativity, crashed in a glorious shot from 25 yards before the Blackburn defence collapsed again to allow Oyvind Leonhardsen to score.

"We shot ourselves in the foot," Kidd said. "We pressed the self-destruct button with the goals and in our situation we had a glass mountain to climb. It's the first time we've been like that.

"You only had to see the reaction of the crowd. The daft things is they've not done us over. It's 3-1 but that doesn't reflect the game.

At three goals down after 31 minutes, Blackburn's only compensation was that they were catching Liverpool when they were supposedly off-form because you fear what permanent damage a rampant Arsenal might have done to them. In fact, the visitors looked fluent even before they scored and it could be that, without Michael Owen and Robbie Fowler, they are better equipped to play away with their current personnel than at Anfield where it is beholden on them to attack.

As for Blackburn, Kidd had to look for straws in the wreckage and the most substantial was that the players had not dwelt on their problems and recovered sufficiently to encourage their supporters they might pinch a point. Instead they emerged with only a volleyed goal from Damien Duff and a long list of maybes that began at the start of the season when Hodgson's purchases either became injured or failed to look value for money.

"When I came here we were rock bottom with nine points from 15 games," Kidd said, "but the players have given themselves a chance of staying in the Premiership by sticking at it. You have to give them credit for that."

With his former employers in the European Cup final and focusing on a potential treble, you could forgive Kidd for wondering if he had made the right decision to go from No 2 at Old Trafford to No 1 at Ewood Park, but he would have none of it.

"I don't see it that way," he replied "I don't look at it as downs because I've got one of the best jobs in football. I work for a cracking owner, Mr Walker, and good people on the board who have supported me."

Whether it will remain a plum position if Blackburn go down is a moot point. With their relegation rivals all away and none winning, this was a missed chance and maybe the moment when Blackburn truly surrendered their Premiership status. Because if they continue in this nervy and tetchy vein they will surely not survive.

Goals: McManaman (22) 0-1; Redknapp (30) 0-2; Leonhardsen (31) 0-3; Duff (66) 1-3.

Blackburn Rovers (4-4-2): Filan; McAteer, Henchoz, Peacock, Croft; Johnson (Dunn, 52), Carsley, Wilcox, Duff; Gallacher, Ward. Substitutes not used: Davies, Broomes, Marcolin, Flowers (gk).

Liverpool (4-5-1): Friedel; Song (Kvarme, 82), Carragher, Staunton, Matteo; Thompson, Redknapp, Ince, Leonhardsen, McManaman; Riedle (Dundee, 79). Substitutes not used: Ferri, Bjornebye, James (gk).

Bookings: Blackburn: Henchoz; Liverpool: Song, Matteo, Thompson.

Referee: R Harris (Oxford).

Man of the match: Redknapp.

Attendance: 29,994.

RELEGATION RUN-IN

P W D L F A Pts

Coventry 35 10 7 18 35 48 37

Blackburn 34 7 11 16 36 49 32

Charlton 35 7 11 17 37 52 32

S'thmpton 35 8 8 19 31 63 32

Nottm F (R) 35 4 9 22 30 68 21

REMAINING FIXTURES

COVENTRY

1 May: Wimbledon (h); 8 May: Derby (a); 16 May: Leeds (h).

BLACKBURN:

1 May: Charlton (a); 8 May: Nottingham Forest (h); 12 May: Manchester United (h); 16 May: Newcastle (a).

CHARLTON

1 May: Blackburn (h); 8 May: Aston Villa (a); 16 May: Sheffield Wednesday (h).

SOUTHAMPTON

1 May: Leicester (h); 8 May: Wimbledon (a); 16 May: Everton (h).

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