David Dunn's Rovers story: part two (From Lancashire Telegraph)

David Dunn's Rovers story: part two

6:10pm Tuesday 7th September 2010 in

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IN the second of our three-part series on David Dunn, who celebrates 10 years with Blackburn Rovers, the homegrown hero relives his debut for Rovers in 1998 and tells us how he grew up as a youngster supporting the blue and white halves.

IT was the moment David Dunn had been dreaming of ever since he stood on the Ewood Park terraces as a child for the first time to roar on his Blackburn Rovers heroes.

As he ran on to the Goodison Park pitch with a large Rovers away following singing his name, ‘Dunny’ knew he had finally arrived.

Could life get any better for the Great Harwood-born teenager?

His Blackburn Rovers debut came as a second half substitute at Everton on September 26, 1998 but it was over almost before it had begun as he was sacrificed just 11 minutes later after Martin Dahlin’s sending off.

With almost 300 appearances for his boyhood club now to his name during a Rovers career spanning 10 years, a 30-year-old Dunn can look back on how it all started with a smile on his face but, at the time, he admits it was far from a joke.

“Looking back, it was pretty funny,” said Dunn. “I got the nod from Tony Parkes, he shouted down ‘You will go on behind the front man and get on the ball for us and do your bit. Good luck’.

“The fans were singing my name and I was thinking ‘Yes, this is it. I am here’.

"Then Dahlin got sent off for spitting at Materazzi but I was just walking around saying, ‘Don’t worry lads'.

"Being a bit chirpy, I was confident at a young age, I was clapping the lads telling them to keep their heads up and then I saw my number go up.

“I couldn’t believe it. I went off and they have the big bath at Everton and I remember being sat in it on my own after the game shaking my head.

“Roy Hodgson came over and told me not to worry, ‘You will get plenty of chances’.

"All I could think about was my mates taking the mickey out of me when I went out in Great Harwood after.

“I remember saying ‘Don’t worry? What do you mean don’t worry? My mates are going to cane me for this’.

"Looking back now I should just have kept my mouth shut.

“Then I made my full time debut a few weeks later at Anfield.

"Steven Gerrard was making his debut the same day. We lost but to start at Anfield was a great memory.”

Dunn has been a Rovers fan for as long as he can remember and, brought up in Great Harwood, some of his earliest childhood memories involve the famous blue-and-white halved shirts of Blackburn Rovers.

While he was soon making a name for himself in his own football journey as he rose up through the Ewood Park youth ranks, including an FA Youth Cup triumph in 1998, his early days as ‘just another Rovers fan’ will never be erased from his memory.

He said: “When I was growing up I just wanted to be a professional footballer.

"Obviously you dream of playing for your club but you never really know.

“Me and a few mates and my dad and my granddad used to go down and stand on the Riverside.

"We couldn’t really see too well because we weren’t tall enough.

"In the first game I was in the Blackburn End in the corner at the front. I remember that.

“Then we used to stand in the paddock next to the benches.

"I remember all the streets. We used to pick the tickets up from a terraced house, it was Jim Furnell’s office.

“I used to love Gordan Cowans. I loved them all Garner, Ossie Ardiles, there were quite a few players along the way.

“We have been fortunate that, even though we are one of the less fashionable clubs, we have had some really good players over the years that we have been able to attract.”

Dunn’s playing career has seen him fortunate enough to celebrate promotion to the Premier League, win the Worthington Cup and qualify for Europe with his first and only footballing love.

The heights they reached when he was a supporter though have never quite been reached, with Jack Walker and Kenny Dalglish bringing the Premier League title to Ewood in 1995, and Dunn admits it was just a privilege to have experienced the ‘glory years’.

Dunn said: “Obviously when Jack Walker took over it was massive for the team and the town.

"All the hype that came with it was great for everyone involved.

"From being 10,000 at Ewood Park, the crowds suddenly rose to 25,000.

“What a time it was to be a Blackburn Rovers supporter.

"We all know we were lucky to be fans at that time because we saw our team win the Premier League.

“I was at Great Harwood Cricket Club the day we won the title at Anfield.

"We watched it there and the celebrations were great.

"I will never forget them and then the parade at Blackburn a few nights later. Good times.

"I also went to Wembley when we won the play-off final that was a great day out.

“I also remember the first time I was ever named on the substitutes bench.

"As an apprentice you used to get Christmas off, so I was out with my dad and a few of my mates on Christmas Day.

“Then Tony Parkes rang me up and told me I was sub the next day.

"I said ‘what do you mean?’. I was in a pub in Great Harwood and shot off home for the next day. I didn’t get on.”

Dunn’s Rovers career has not always been plain sailing, with injury problems and a fall-out with Graeme Souness ensuring his fair share of bad times, and the beginnings were no exception.

The midfielder made just 10 starts in his debut season as he was forced to watch Rovers’ Premier League relegation from the periphery and he followed that up with another frustrating campaign as they struggled to make a Championship impact.

“The relegation season was hard,” he said.

“Roy Hodgson got the sack after the Southampton game, Parkesy took over and then Brian Kidd came in.

"It was the United game we got relegated and I hit the bar in the game.

“It was difficult but as a young player you take these things in your stride.

"You knew what it meant but in a selfish kind of way I was just interested in making a career for myself.

“I imagine it would be a very different feeling now.

"In those days I just wanted to be a footballer. I actually found the season after quite hard.

"I was in and out of the team and not playing too much.

"But when Graeme Souness came in he obviously rated me, I scored in his first game against Fulham away.

“He was happy with how I performed and I played most of the time he was here. I have had a good career barring a couple of injuries along the way.

“I even enjoyed my time at Birmingham, I quite liked it there, however ideally I would have stayed here and played for one club all my career.”