Blackburn Rovers blog: Kean’s men beginning to look like a real team (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Blackburn Rovers blog: Kean’s men beginning to look like a real team

2:40pm Tuesday 20th September 2011 in Dan Clough By Dan Clough , Reporter

WOW! What a great match. What a great result. And what a great second half performance.

If a 250-strong protest evokes that kind of response from Rovers, can we have one every week?

It wasn’t plain sailing by any means.

And our first half performance was more of the same from Steve Kean’s men.

With the half time score at 2-1 to Arsenal, I admit my spirits were at an all-time low. The chap who sits to my right in the Blackburn End turned to me on the half-hour mark and said: “Can you remember being this low?”

And, considering we are both in our 20s and can barely remember anything from the pre-90s era, we could not – even taking into account the 1999 relegation.

Boy how that changed.

The squad proved yet again that they are fighting for their manager.

No matter what the fans may think, say or do, the players are there fighting for Kean.

I don’t know what was said, or by whom at half time, but it really did work.

Yakubu looked class in front of goal, without really doing anything else throughout the match. When the ball did get to him, he was so strong all he had to do was stick his bum out and there was no way the defender could take the ball from him.

Jason Lowe was my man of the match. He looked really assured at right back, which was pleasing given that Michel Salgado, sad as it is to say, has looked totally off the pace all season.

Scott Dann continued to show why he is such a good signing – a signing that may never have happened without Kean – and hopefully his partnership with captain Chris Samba will flourish for a good while yet.

Ruben Rochina also once again showed he is going to be a class act.

Martin Olsson came off the bench and changed the game. Hopefully he’ll be fit enough to start at Newcastle on Sunday as he really does give us something extra, and without him on the left wing, Gael Givet was continually exposed as Junior Hoilett doesn’t really possess any defensive capabilities.

I was disappointed with Radosav Petrovic, but Simon Vukcevic showed flashes.

This performance, with many good showings for Kean’s signings, just went to show that we should give him time, and it does seem that Venky’s are wanting to do that.

Speaking of the owners, it was nice to see the Rao brothers standing and applauding at full time. I think maybe they could have turned a corner.

n There are reports Venky’s want to fly some fans over to India for a chat.

People need to realise that most hardcore fans are not frequent users of internet forums.

Take Alan ‘Birdie’ Birkbeck, for example, who hasn’t missed a game in about 200 years!

It’s people like him and his Ewood Blues that the owners should be talking to.

Read Jason Wilcox's column only in today's Lancashire Telegraph newspaper.