IT MAKES a pleasant change to be writing this piece in a positive frame of mind.
The four points from the last two games was a great return and it's also come at a stage in the season when it was desperately needed. Two solid, if unspectacular, performances where the players' honesty and commitment more than anything else saw us get our just reward.
Having said that, I was very disappointed when I heard the team before the Newcastle match. After the priceless three points at Boro I expected an unchanged side but it wasn't to be with Cole's inclusion being the biggest surprise.
I, for one, thought that the striker formerly known as 'prolific' was possibly on thin ice at Ewood. But after his quite public omission at the Riverside he responded with a whole-hearted (honestly!) and committed performance to justify his inclusion. It just proves that you can't second guess the manager, and even though we might not like to admit it, he knows best.
In what was an incident packed game played in a most un-Ewood like cup tie atmosphere there were many talking points.
Firstly Craig Bellamy. The way he rolled around after Lucas Neill's challenge and then miraculously recovered. All this played out in front of the Blackburn End in his own antagonising way.
This guy makes me wish that knee-high two-footed challenges were legal.
It made a change for a Newcastle striker to be roundly booed by Rovers fans and that striker not to be Alan Shearer. The problem is, he who gets booed shall score and so it proved again. Although I'm quite sure that our defenders could claim an assist. How they let a long throw in bounce not once but twice in our own six-yard box beggars belief and we were rightly punished.
We seem to switch off at the back as much as I do when The Premiership is on.
So after a great first half performance when we could have been three up we found ourselves one down. Now in other games this season we've basically given up if events have conspired against us. Not this time. Yet again the arrival off the bench of Paul Gallagher proved the catalyst for a revival.
His great cross for Jonathan Stead to expertly finish got us the point we at least deserved and sparked celebrations at Ewood the like of which have been all too scarce this season.
Two goals in two games for the top of the range version of Peter Crouch, exactly the same return as the bottom of the range Ciccio Grabbi returned in two seasons.
An enjoyable walk home was made for a change, punctuated only by a little intimidation from the self styled 'best supporters in the world' who were none too impressed.
Yes, the same supporters who ridicule Rovers fans who boo Shearer yet do the same to their former player Andy Cole!
What's all that about?
Answers on a postcard please.
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