There will be Blackburn-Middlesbrough connections wherever you look this afternoon.

In the dug-outs there will be Boro captains of the past as Tony Mowbray, a legend on Teesside, comes up against Jonathan Woodgate.

On the pitch, Stewart Downing will be hoping to face his former club for the first time in his career, with Danny Graham, Richie Smallwood, Harry Chapman and Jayson Leutwiler all having represented both clubs. In the posh seats, there will also be an interesting dynamic, with Woodgate’s wife Natalie being the sister of the Rovers winger.

Downing’s second spell at the Riverside, which lasted four years, came to an end in the summer, just weeks before Woodgate got the top job, replacing Tony Pulis.

And Downing says his departure before Woodgate’s appointment probably made things a little more straightforward for both. 

 “Maybe it was taken out of his hands, the club wanted to go a different way and sign younger players,” he said.

“They have a transfer committee and it wasn’t his sole decision on who they sign.

“I was already 90 per cent done here, I’d given my word to the manager and it wouldn’t have been good to go back on that leaving it so late.

“I explained that to Jonathan and he said it was fine.

“It probably made it easier for him because if he wanted to let me go then I’d already told him I was leaving, so it probably worked out best for everyone.

“He can go and do what he wants with his team and he didn’t need the stress of me hanging around.

“If we lost a few games and I was playing you could imagine the whispers going around so it was probably easier that I left.”

Downing isn’t the only Rovers player to be inundated with ticket requests for this game, with Danny Graham’s wife being from Middlesbrough.

So there will plenty more than the 2,500 travelling supporters making the trip back up to Teesside after the game.

“In different cars though,” Downing joked of whether he will travel back with Woodgate.

“I will speak to him after the game.

“We will play each other twice this season and there will be a bit of rivalry but I hope he does a good job because he’s waited a lot of years for it

“It will be interesting. He’s a new manager, who will everyone support? We’ll find out on the day.”

The usual daily conversations with Woodgate have dried up a little ahead of the game. While Boro have new additions since Downing’s departure, he says there will be a distinct style that Woodgate will look to employ.

“I’ve seen his philosophy of how he likes to play,” he explained.

“I’ve not spoken to him for the last couple of days, but you know how they want to play.

“They’ll want to be on the front foot, press, get about people, and we’ll have to be ready about that.

“The manager asked me what team I think they might play but I haven’t got a clue. He’s got good options and three or four new options since the window closed last week.

“I know one thing and that’s that he will want to come and win the game. I know he was a defender but he’s not a defensive minded coach.”

Downing scored his first goal in Rovers colours on Tuesday as they sneaked past Oldham in the Carabao Cup. Middlesbrough however, were dumped out by League Two side Crewe on penalties, leaving Woodgate still searching for his first win in charge.

But Rovers are in desperate need of kick-starting their own campaign having started with back-to-back Championship defeats to Charlton and Fulham.

On Woodgate’s start to managerial life, he added: “Similar to us. Having seen the Luton game (3-3 draw), I’m not sure whether it should have been a win, a draw or a loss it was that end-to-end.

“They should have won it, could have won it, but almost lost it, so I think they were happy to come away with a draw in the end.

“It was a typical Championship game.

“I spoke to Woody after the Brentford game and he said that was probably the best they had played first half, but Brentford were really good in the second half.

“It’s those fine margins, a difficult league.

“They are trying to fit in to a new way of playing, similar to us with new players having come in.

“It will be an interesting game.”

While the Oldham performance wasn’t to the liking of manager Mowbray, Downing insists finding a way to win was one positive to take.

Asked if he would take a positive result come 5pm over a poor display, Downing said: “You know what managers are like, he will pick the bones out of it and they will want the perfect performance, and sometimes you can have that.

“We showed another side the other night. We went a bit more direct late on, hit Danny with some diagonals, and got the knockdowns and got the goals.

“We’ve shown we can adapt which is good. Some teams can only play one way and when that doesn’t work they run out of ideas.

“That was pleasing.”