Blackburn v BORO (The Championship)
21st March 2026 (ko 12.30pm)
Sit yourself down with a pot of tea and some cake and/or a sandwich, or a beer and crisps or maybe even a bottle of wine and some cheese. If you are feeling thirsty, perhaps two of your drink of choice, because I’m not sure where this will take us, or when we might arrive at our destination. Better get the stocks in and make yourself comfortable.
This Match Preview might easily have begun with a reference to how Time can act cruelly, and not only in terms of the health of some of the members of this Blog. There might have been 4,000 (pot) holes in the roads in Blackburn, Lancashire, at the time “A Day in the Life” was issued as part of the Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album in 1967 but, as a result of the passage of time, 4,000 is hardly likely to scratch the (road) surface these days. I am making an assumption here: that roads in Lancashire are maintained in a similar manner to those in North Yorkshire so, whatever their condition, repairs can only be expected if the Tour of Yorkshire or the Grand Depart of the Tour de France is routed to pass along the roads in question, or unless a fatal accident has occurred on that particular street.
Following a football team can be a maddening enterprise. We can look at the distant past, during the early years of the Football League or even the early years of the Premiership/Premier League (now 33/34 years ago). Nobody will be alive now who followed football in the early years at the end of the 1880s or pre WW1, so football events then will be history rather than memory. Contemplating more recent results may also invite “glass half full/glass half empty” comparisons, as has been mentioned several times in Diasboro dispatches (including in the last thread about the Boro v Bristol City game). We can even look differently at results from earlier in this current season to the way we look at results in the last few weeks, particularly if a great deal appears to hang on those results. Views may change from match to match and even from day to day, when the dust has settled after the latest euphoric win, point rescued or a dismal defeat in a performance which invites depression. Perspectives change and may change again after the next game.
The Past.
I will try to keep this briefer than might have been the case (though my efforts may be in vain). Blackburn Rovers is one of only three clubs which were founder members of both the English Football League AND the Premier League (then known as the “Premiership”), those leagues being formed in 1888 and in 1992 respectively. The no-doubt very proud triumvirate comprises Aston Villa, Blackburn and Everton. Throughout the years Blackburn Rovers has scaled Himalayan heights that Boro supporters could only dream of. The Top Tier League title, under whatever name, has been won by Rovers on three occasions and the FA Cup has been won 6 times. Under the current SkyTV version of football we all know and love so much (*cough, cough*) Rovers finished in 4th place in 1992-93 (the first year of the new Premiership, which was the first year of Rovers’ return to the Top Tier after promotion). Rovers improved to be runners-up in 1993-94 and Champions in 1994-95 – funded by Sir Jack Walker’s largesse. Performances subsequently declined and the club was eventually relegated to the newly-named Championship after 7 seasons, at the end of the 1998-99 season. Sadly, Sir Jack died in August 2000, shortly after having placed substantial sums of money and the club’s ownership into a Family Trust which he must have hoped would secure the club’s fortunes well into the future.
(Interestingly, Boro and Blackburn Rovers were BOTH promoted from the Old Second Division in 1991-92 and were therefore both promoted into the inaugural Premiership together with Ipswich Town for the 1992-92 season, thus ensuring Rovers’ founder membership. The initial TWENTY TWO members of the league included Arsenal, Villa, Chelsea, Palace, Everton, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Nottingham Forest and Tottenham Hotspur - but for how much longer in the case of the latter? But whilst 11 of those ”founder” teams are currently EPL members, there are 11 founders who at present are not: Blackburn Rovers, Coventry, Ipswich, our favourites from Middlesbrough, Norwich, Oldham Athletic, QPR, Sheffield United, ill-fated Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton and Wimbledon. Perhaps three of those former and founder PL members will return to the fold at the end of this current season?).
The security of Rovers’ future that had been intended by Jack Walker was not to be, despite the fact that Blackburn achieved promotion back to The Big Time only two seasons after relegation and the club was able to remain in the Top Tier for the following 11 seasons. The League Cup was won by Rovers at Cardiff (of Blessed Memory) in February 2002 but that was the only further silverware gained before the club was relegated again in May 2012. Rovers has been a fixture in The Championship ever since (apart from 2018-19 when the club spent a solitary season in League One). Far from representing a giant of the game, Blackburn Rovers represents just as much a part of The Championship furniture these days as Middlesbrough.
The Family Trust sold the club to its new corporate owners, Venky’s London Ltd, in 2010 and the most neutral comment it is possible to make is that the sale was the cause of much criticism of the Trust and its trustees, and the new ownership has come under mounting ill-feeling as it proved incapable of reversing the club’s apparent decline following relegation in 2012. In the last few years the club has finished 8th in the Championship (2021-22), 7th (2022-23), 19th (2023-24 when a further relegation was averted only by beating Champions Leicester City on the final day of the season) and 7th again in 2024-25. So not even a Play-Off place was gained during those seasons. However, on Monday 16th March 2026 and despite helping out Boro with a come-back 2-1 win against 10-man Millwall in London on 14th March, Blackburn remains in a lowly 19th league position and only 3 points ahead of an in-form 22nd place Oxford United. A descent into the 3rd Tier is a much more realistic proposition than a still mathematically possible (but enormously improbable) finish in the promotion Play-Off positions. From the perspective of its past, Blackburn Rovers appears to be living the nightmare of its present.
So Blackburn Rovers has been a giant of English football and has scaled the peaks (winning the League title 3 times and the FA Cup 6 times) which supporters of our beloved Boro could only read and dream about. It has had an owner and benefactor in Sir Jack Walker who did all he could for the club he loved even though that legacy may appear to have been frittered away in recent years. We at Boro are very loyal towards our club’s owner/Chairman (there can’t be many clubs where the Chairman’s name is regularly chanted by the crowd) but if there were a League Table of Good Chairmen, Sir Jack would at least be a realistic contender for the title.
Recent Form:
This could get messy, but I will try to avoid that! In recent games (most recent first), we can see the results as follows:
BORO -
Sat 14 Mar Boro 1-1 Bristol C (H) D Wed 11 Mar Boro 0-1 Charlton (H) L Sun 8 Mar QPR 0-4 Boro (A) W Mon 2 Mar Birm 1-3 Boro (A) W Tue 24 Feb Boro 1-1 Leicester (H) D Sat 21 Feb Boro 1-1 Oxford (H) D
BLACKBURN:
Sat 14 Mar Millwall 1-2 Blackb’n (A) W Wed 11 Mar Oxford 1-0 Blackb’n (A) L Sat 7 Mar Blackb’n 1-1 Portsm’th (H) D Sat 28 Feb Derby 3-1 Blackb’n (A) L Tue 24 Feb Blackb’n 1-2 Bristol C (H) L Fri 20 Feb Blackb’n 1-0 PNE (H) W
Current status:
BLACKBURN (19th in the table)–
Played 38, W11, D9, L18 (GD -13). 42 points
BORO (2nd in the table) –
Played 38, W20, D10, L8 (GD +22). 70 points
So, despite how things may feel at present, Boro with DLWWDD has gained 9 points from the last 18 available (4 games at home and 2 away) whilst Blackburn from its WLDLLW has gained 7 points (3 games away and 3 at home). Boro’s two wins have both come from its away fixtures whilst Blackburn has had mixed form in its home matches (W1, D1 and L1).
Our Opponents:
Our very own Aynsley Pears (27 years) and previous player Adam Forshaw (now 34 years old) play for Rovers. In the backroom staff Jordan Rhodes, formerly of this parish, joined Rovers as the club’s Loans Manager last September, and Rudy Gestede is the club's Head of Football Operations! Michael O'Neill was appointed manager on 13th February (5 weeks ago), with his time shared being with management of the Northern Irleand team. Todd Cantwell (27 years, a midfielder who has scored 5 goals so far this season) captains the club, having joined Rovers from Glasgow Rangers and previously having been on loan at Bournemouth. The team appears not overly blessed with goalscoring talent this season, so some may say that is a similarity with Boro. Yuki Oyashi currently has 8 goals (1 pen), Andri Gudjohnsen 7 goals and Mathias Jorgensen with 5. Mildfielder Ryoya Morishita has 7 assists so far and Cantwell 3 in addition to his 5 goals.
Blackburn is believed to have spent about £13.2M on player purchases for this current season (though if the club’s market activity is as opaque as Boro’s, the figures may, or may not, be totally relied upon), and the club is believed to have recouped about £14M from player sales. Perhaps following Chelsea’s sales and acquisitions model, Rovers has at different times loaned out a total of 15 players so far this season!
Sean McLoughlin (29 years old defender currently on loan from Hull City) apparently accepted that “Home truths were given” following the disappointing defeat at fellow relegation-strugglers Oxford United last Wednesday 11th March and the “discussions” must have had the desired results as promotion-chasing Millwall were leading 1-0 on Saturday but, having had a red card shown to Sturge in the 59th minute, the Lions collapsed late in the game with Jorgensen scoring in the 80th and 85th minutes to secure Rovers the 3 away points.
Blackburn made over 7,000 away tickets available for this fixture but it will be no surprise to hear that with Boro’s fanatical away support, those tickets swiftly sold out. Somebody must have realised that “Away Season Tickets” for Boro supporters appear to offer better results than the Home variety.
What about the game?
Blackburn’s last result was the already-mentioned magnificent 3 pointer away to a Millwall team which had been on a run of 4 successive wins. It is difficult to assess whether that result would have been greeted more enthusiastically in Lancashire or on Teesside, irrespective of the fact that Millwall had a player sent off with more than 30 minutes to play. The defeat prevented Millwall from climbing above Boro into second place in the league table, on level games played. Had Rovers lost, that team would currently be in the bottom three. Rovers fans are probably feeling a little better about life now than last Saturday morning, whilst still believing the club to be that mythical beast: a “sleeping giant”. Even the passage of a few days can freshen the perspective.
Blackburn’s recent form at home has been poor whereas Boro seems recently to be more at ease, more confident and more successful away from home. To be honest, I’d say Boro currently has more chance of getting three points at Blackburn, especially with more than 7,000 Boro supporters in the stadium, than at the Riverside against Rovers.
I am tempted to predict a Boro win, but I am conscious that momentum has been shifting away from Boro since that away defeat at Coventry four weeks ago on 16th February. Boro had just returned to the top of the league, having relentlessly hunted Coventry down with 6 successive Championship wins (and some wonderful football): against Southampton (4-0 at home), West Brom (2-3 away), Stoke (1-2 away), PNE (4-0 at home), Norwich (1-0 at home) and then a glorious win against Sheffield United (1-2 away). At that stage Boro’s confidence was sky-high and people were assuming Boro would be a shoe-in for the Championship Title. The debate was whether Coventry, then experiencing something of a “wobble”, or one of the chasing pack would accompany Boro to the Premier League via automatic promotion. The Coventry defeat appears to have taken the wind from Boro’s sails precisely at the time of the season when a favourable wind is vital. Luckily for us, it appears that some of the chasing pack has also recently entered the Doldrums.
I don’t want to jinx anything. But suddenly 3 points would be VERY welcome and might help settle some nervous dispositions around here. Of course, Ipswich plays Millwall at home (so one or both of them must drop points) at the same time that Boro plays at Blackburn, and 5th placed Hull – five further points behind Ipswich and Millwall – will be at home against hapless Shefield Wednesday later the same day. A win for Boro and a draw between Millwall and Ipswich would see Boro 4 points clear of both those two clubs with the season coming to its climax. I might be able to cope with that. Such results would certainly change perspectives and would cause more Middlesbrough glasses to be considered half-full than half-empty.
I began by reflecting on the way that Time affects things and people. If a Blackburn Rovers supporter had been asked, at the time when Sir Jack Walker was in the Boardroom and when Shearer and Sutton were terrorising defenders up and down the country or, later, in December 2001 when the club had just paid £8M to Manchester United to sign Andy Cole, that supporter would have been hoping to challenge for the League title and maybe other silverware rather than (as now) looking over the shoulder at the trapdoor to League One (Tier Three). Equally a Boro supporter (no names, no pack drill) who at the start of the season thought Boro might, with a favourable wind, have a chance of finishing 8th or 9th in the table, would almost certainly have greeted with unrestrained pleasure a situation where Boro found itself in 2nd position in the table towards the end of March and still with automatic promotion in its own hands. If Boro wins its games promotion will follow. A final 8th or 9th position which might have seemed “OK” in August 2025 would now seem particularly underwhelming. In fact, from here, 8th or 9th place in the table would amount to a devastating collapse in form by the end of this season. Time has moved on. New parameters have been set. We can’t forget the last seven and a half months. Mount Everest must look high, almost unattainable, from Basecamp but if you’d already reached the Hillary Step any failure to summit from there would feel like the end of the world.
It’s all relative. It is about perspective. A modern supporter of Arsenal or Manchester United would be horrified even to contemplate the possibility that their team could be in The Championship. They would no doubt feel their “natural place” to be at the top end of the Premier League fighting for titles and European glory. Hartlepool supporters – no, even Blackburn Rovers supporters with all their history of successes ancient and modern - would snap our hands off to be in Boro’s position at present.
This morning I watched a YouTube interview/podcast by Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman, interviewing the current Community Director of Wrexham AFC, Humphrey Ker. Founded in 1864 (when dragons still flew over the mountains of North Wales and neither Blackburn Rovers nor Middlesbrough existed as professional football clubs) Wrexham was in the Twilight Zone of non-league football, its better years only a memory, when Hollywood came calling in February 2021. Ker said in the interview that, asked to search for a football club for the Hollywood stars to buy, three names were at the top of the list: Aldershot, Hartlepool and Wrexham. The owner of Hartlepool wanted to be paid £2M for the Club. Wrexham was then owned by a Supporters’ Trust, which sought a sale price of a nominal £1 if only £2M could be made available to discharge the club’s debts – so guess which most appealed to Reynolds & McElhenney. When a list of “What Might Have Beens” is eventually compiled, supporters of Hartlepool United must have pride of place, as they jealously look on. Previously in the same league as Hartlepool, Wrexham has achieved THREE successive promotions and might be in with a chance of Premier League football via this season’s Play-Offs. Hartlepool remains in what we might think of as the old Nationwide Conference – the Fifth Tier in English football - whilst Wrexham supporters are living the dream.
Meanwhile Wrexham is said to have more commercial deals than most (apart from the very largest clubs) in the Premier League and a further, record breaking FOURTH successive promotion would propel Wrexham into the Giant league. Its commercial success feeds off its American and world media exposure. The prime shirt sponsor for Wrexham is United Airlines (the largest airline in the world in terms of available seat miles, revenue seat miles, mainfleet size, the number of mainline employees and destinations served) in a deal worth £5-6M per year. By way of comparison Hartlepool’s shirt sponsor is Workwear Express (previously it was The Prestige Group which has taken up the stadium naming rights) and Boro’s is Unibet but has previously been the Pawnbroking company, Ramsdens. That is not to denigrate the North East teams but it was only 5 years ago that Middlesbrough dwarfed Wrexham and Hartlepool would have considered itself at least a peer of the North Wales club. So we don’t need to go to ancient history, back to the 19th Century or even 30 years to the early years of the Premier League, because even the last few years offer a different perspective. What to expect, what to dream of, or what might seem pie-in-the-sky.
Should Boro win the game, the team will remain in second position in the league and will face later fixtures against Millwall and Ipswich that could define the season – a great success or an unexpected “nearly”. The reality is that even if Boro were to come a cropper against Rovers on Saturday the season would still not be “over”. Subsequent wins against Millwall and Ipswich, combined with other results could make this frenzy of navel-gazing seem almost amusing in retrospect, in less than 2 months time. Hopefully we can then all look back at the self-doubt of March 2026 from the perspective of a team that secured automatic promotion to the Premier League (with or without Wrexham following in the Play-Offs). A win against Blackburn would certainly lift the spirits and make the world seem a rather more agreeable place. But, if it’s all fine with the rest of you, I’d very much prefer NOT to have to secure that agreeable possibility by needing to go to Wrexham for the required points in our final game on 2nd May.
The issue of course is that Boro finds it difficult to score goals against teams that stand-off, playing the “low block”. Teams struggling in the league and who are concerned that a rampant Boro will tear the team apart, will not take any risks against Boro, especially at the Riverside, Luckily, this game will be played in Blackburn! Teams who themselves are confident, believing they can beat anyone and believing THEY can gain promotion, or teams in a desperate struggle for points, are much more likely to attack Boro and therefore leave gaps for Boro to exploit, especially when those teams are at home. But the fact we realise this, means that professional coaches with all their statistical analysis as well as the “eye test” will be even more aware of the position. I have previously suggested that there may be times when Boro should mix up the tactics, to be less predictable. More directness, running at the opponent (rather than always trying to create triangles) and taking earlier shots, rather than always playing pretty passes but creating no clear opening. Boro MUST find a way to create openings, and take those opportunities, against all types of formations likely to be met during the season because the prize is just too rich to allow any other possibility. And the prize may be out of reach next year, so the time to strike is now.
I will be very nervous listening to the BBC Tees commentary on Saturday lunchtime.
Forever Dormo 16th March 2026
PS. How did everyone do on the consumption front? Maybe if I’d prepared properly, I could have offered a prize to the Blog member who drank the most before reaching the end of the starter piece. Did anyone finish their second bottle of wine?
17th March 2026
Thanks Forever Dormo for a very detailed opener, which passed nearly an hour of my life 😂😂😂, a very enjoyable read.
Come on BORO.
Absolutely brilliant, Dormo, a War and Peace of an opener.
Woody Allen once did a speed reading of Tolstoy's epic. Finished it in 20 minutes. He concluded that, "It's all about Russia."
Your piece is so well written, Dormo, and so literate that it shouldn't be skimmed. It rewards a thorough read. It covers every conceivable aspect of Boro's crucial game on Saturday in the context of a fascinating history of our opponents.
But it's not "just about football". It does all of this within the even wider context of one of literature's great themes: tempus omnia vincit.
You don't expect to read in a football blog the kind of meditations on time and perspective that you have given us here.
Many thanks and congratulations on such an interesting and stimulating piece
I have just quickly scrolled the encyclopedia that you have prepared for us FD. Apologies, I can't read that now, but will try to see if I can get it all read on my commute home later this afternoon!!
I hope it’s a long commute home 😂😂😂.I have just quickly scrolled the encyclopedia that you have prepared for us FD. Apologies, I can't read that now, but will try to see if I can get it all read on my commute home later this afternoon!!
Come on BORO.
Superb FD and timely too as I’d just come back into the van having jet washed the decking, in search of a seat and a good read.
I love this Forum for the diversity of writing that forms the various starters. Yours is a prime example of content that just wouldn’t be available on other football platforms, whether online or in the print media.
Many thanks for such a well researched starter, written with a flourish and full of facts - chapeau, monsieur, chapeau…
@lenmasterman - That's very kind of you to say, Len. And a nod, too, to exmil and to Martin. I'm pleased the writing of Match Previews is not something I have to do for every game, even if this one was a "light the blue touchpaper and see what happens" kind of piece. Before a group of us started to share these duties, it must have been a considerable burden for the "few" to carry. It must be different for the members of the Press for whom this is a full time job, every week and often twice a week, however they feel and whatever is going on in their lives.
Ok a draw between Ipswich and Millwall would suit Boro.
But the season has reached the critical stage. Forget the other teams as the only important issue is Boro winning.
So, I’d be delighted with any kind of win and just accept the results of other teams.
philip of Huddersfield 🤔🤔🤔
Thanks FD for such an informative and interesting opener as usual !
Mrs OFB persuaded me to come out in the sun for a gentle stroll around the shops wjiuc I could manage on the flat !
We bumped into old friends of ours David Mills and his wife. Their sons and ours used to go to school together and David used to pop into my office now and then for a chat although we were both supposed to be working!
I now have his email and when I feel better I will do an IN2VIEW with David a great guy and once England’s most expensive player!
This is to make up for missong doing my turn for the previews !
John Fostet from the Boro 🎤 messaged me and said he had shown his Diasboro In2View to a lot of Boro Fans so we may get some lurkers !
excuse soeong mistakes as still recovering from eye surgery!
Getting bots replaced bit by bit
OFB
OFB
@original-fat-bob Great to hear from you. Keep smiling.
Hi Bob. Good to hear that you got out and managed a bit of socialising. That should do you the world of good. Let's hope that Summer lives up to its name and that you have many such days to enjoy in the months ahead.
That made me laugh.. it is just over an hour on the coach from Glasgow to Perth, so hopefully that will be sufficientI hope it’s a long commute home 😂😂😂.I have just quickly scrolled the encyclopedia that you have prepared for us FD. Apologies, I can't read that now, but will try to see if I can get it all read on my commute home later this afternoon!!
Come on BORO.
@original-fat-bob Ditto the others, it is good to see you (metaphorically speaking!!!) and no pun intended for the eyes!! I should stop now ....
‘It must be different for the members of the Press for whom this is a full time job, every week and often twice a week, however they feel and whatever is going on in their lives.’
Hmmm, maybe. But very few of today’s press pack - unless they’re in the so-called broadsheet papers - could produce an article of this quality! We’ve only to think of the efforts of our local gang, which, ever since AV moved on, have been disappointing, anodyne, full of errors or simply pointless (and sometimes all 4 together!) It’s a brilliant piece of work, Dormo, which must have taken you many hours of painstaking research and meticulous composition. You’ve even written a chunk of my Wrexham preview for me! Thank you.
I’m going to Blackburn, along with 7000 other ‘leather-lunged loyalists’ (copywright Anthony Vickers) hoping for a Boro win and a turnaround in our fortunes. If football were played on paper, we’d win, but as Cloughie famously said, it’s played on grass. Make no mistake, this will be a challenging game. Rovers are desperate for the points and will be really pumped up to build on their Millwall win. Experienced Northern Ireland manager, Michael O’Neill, is clearly no mug. Our record at Ewood has generally been poor over the years, and of course Rovers are one of our chief bogey teams. It’s been yonks since we’ve beaten them.
In these circumstances, I would normally settle for a point. However, as we’ve thrown so many away in our 4 home games, a single point probably isn’t going to be good enough in the long run. Let’s hope Hackney is fit - as I write, there has been no news from the club, which seems ominous. Everything crossed for a Boro win.
Wonderful to hear from you, Bob! I hope you’re soon fighting fit again, have fully operational eyes and can take your rightful place again at The Riverside.
I’ll look forward to the Mills Bomb In2View. No rush, of course. Only when you feel up to it.
@original-fat-bob - Thanks, Bob and it's great to have you back. We really need a return of the old "Boro3".
@forever-dormo An excellent starter. I needed to read it in three parts. But enjoyed it very much, thank you.
Started it in the morning but needed to go to the gym with my missus - to lift some weights. And then some shopping and after that we took a nap. Then one hour of football with friends (kind of five-a-side) and then was able to read the part "2". Then to sauna at home and dinner reading the blog and finishing the starter.
It was excellent. I hope our team will show same spirit and talent at Ewood Park. Or like at Birmingham and QPR.
I am cofident. We must be luckier for a change. And not missing sitters a la Browne and Strelec.
Up the Boro!
@original-fat-bob And nice to "hear" you are back, again. Keep fit and enjoy the rest of the Boro season. Up the Boro!
Unfortunately Dormo, I did not take your advice and prepare myself for the Blackburn Headliner of so much depth, that I needed take a break half way through and have a lay down to recover.
However, fortified after my nap and with a cup of tea and biscuit, I continued to the end of your “best ever” piece, skilfully written.
A real credit to you. You also deserve to be rewarded by the result along with 7000 fans for their unswerving support.
PS. Nice to hear from you again OFB, keep well.
My first thoughts were bloody hell that must be the largest pre match piece that has been written and how did he find the time!
It is an excellent piece of journalism and was such an informative and interesting read; it should be shared with our local team of so called professionals as an example of what true copy is all about.
As for Saturday, it is a game where we badly need the three points but I am fearing the worst as our record against Rovers is shocking. The last six H2H reveals: W1 L3 D2.
Whilst I want us to win I don’t want Rovers to be relegated as the Caddymaster at our golf club is a Rovers supporter; he couldn’t believe the win at Millwall but said the sending off made the difference and he is fearing the drop.
I hope that Clive and the other 6,999 Boro supporters enjoy the match and that they travel home safely in a happy frame of mind.
I shall be watching via Riverside Live and no doubt feeling nervous for the full 90+ mins; I suspect it will be a tight affair and whilst fearing the worst, I would not be surprised if it was a draw and that Ipswich beat Millwall to go ahead of us on goal difference and with a game in hand.
CoB prove me wrong and for once this season beat a bogey team!😎
@original-fat-bob. Good to hear from you and that you have been able to get some fresh air and sun shine. All the best. 😎
Arghh! There is a typo in paragraph 4 of my Match Preview (under the heading "The Past"). The league Title was most recently won by Blackburn Rovers in the 1994-95 season rather than 1995-96 as originally typed. Ignoring another place where I have somehow put a couple of words in the wrong order, I can only say that I should sack my sub-editor. However, since that is me, I might have difficulties in that regard...
Wrexham having the wind taken out its sails a bit by the Hornets: Watford 2 Wrexham 0 at half-time...
@clive-hurren - My proof reader is very poor and currently on a final warning. He came out with some cock-and-bull story about having been advised to drink two bottles of wine whilst going through the Match Preview. As if...
Wonderfully detailed opener, Dormo.
And welcome back, Bob. So good to see you again.
I have more than a handful of insights to share with you all based on what I've read and pondered post-Bristol, but given that I've arts writing to catch up with I'll keep my observation total down to one this evening. One that feels most fitting now.
A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE... OR MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTTING
I was talking with a friend of mine this week, a great writer and a fellow Boro fan. He told me that the manager's, or head coach's, mindset, and the fan's mindset, were divided by emotion, as they should be. Kim Hellberg has to ignore whatever he may be feeling and focus fully on preparing for the next game, whereas we are still lamenting the pain of the past.
Mindset... or perspective. Which brings me to one of Richard Curtis's finest pieces of writing, in the midst of Notting Hill. It's that moment where Hugh Grant's Will is trying to be kind and diplomatic when Julia Roberts' Anna is tracked down by the press after looking for peace and security with Will. Will highlights that there are worse problems, to which Anna responds, "You're right. Of course, you're right. It's just that I've dealt with this garbage for ten years. You've had it for ten minutes. Our perspectives are very different."
This is immediately followed by Will pleading that it's only one day's worth of stories, only to be reminded by Anna that the story on her for the day will be filed and can be referenced at any point. "Newspapers last forever. I'll regret this forever."
Director Roger Michell holds pause long enough for a painful truth to sink in, Anna sensing she's made a terrible mistake with those last four words. Will handles it as admirably as he can but he's visibly devastated. "I will feel the opposite, if that's okay by you, and always be glad that you came to stay."
So what does this have to do with Boro? Well...
It was tempting, after the pain of a late, late goal which felt totally unwarranted, to approach fans after my "calming down" period and plead for rationality. Especially when, if we put things into perspective - there's that word again - Boro are brilliantly placed, and even if dropping points at home in the last minutes feels like the end, it certainly isn't when we look at the bigger picture. Which, to me, perhaps explains KH's public praise for the performance - if you look at it on the whole and not in the context of that horrible concession, there are so many positives.
But this was the first time KHBoro had not won in the league after taking the lead. An experience he'd been through for minutes. Boro fans, who are accustomed to losing things from winning positions over and over again for years, likely have a very different perspective. A perspective where the positivity has taken a really hard hit from all the nearly-but-not-quites.
So one can look at Edmundson's header and Strelec's miss and think they'll literally regret those forever - but there is also a strong case for feeling the opposite. It's also right to remember that these players are human and will make mistakes, will likely be feeling the pain as much if not more than we are, and will surely be grateful that the head coach has kept his faith in them even if alternatives such as Fry and the-striker-who-never-signed-in-the-transfer-window-like-Jordan-Rhodes-did have come to mind in debates.
We've bounced back before. I have faith we will again.
@simonfallaha - Nicely put, Si. The perspective of the manager, the player and the fan IS different. And that perspective can, will, change from week to week as the games come and go.
A neutral watcher of a match feels different, again. I saw much of today's 5-0 win by Sporting Lisbon (after extra time, with the last goal coming as the final whistle neared), over Bodo/Glimt, having been 3-0 down after the first leg. It was "interesting" but was certainly no late win like the UEFA Cup wins against Basel or Steaua Bucharest.
And Notting Hill is a REALLY good film. It is one of a handful of films where, though I've seen them several times, if they happened to appear on screen as I flicked through the channels, I'd almost certainly watch what was left of the film.
Others in that category are Local Hero, Shakespeare in Love, Pretty Woman, Four Weddings And A Funeral, Gregory's Girl, Zulu, Groundhog Day, The Man who would be King, The Quiet Man, Jesus Christ Superstar, quite a few adaptations of Jane Austen stories and the odd Shakespeare like Taming of the Shrew.
And finally it really is good to have you back on here, Si.