It might be beyond even Big Sam to get a club with limited resources to exceed expectations for a second time
Twenty-two minutes into a tie scheduled to be played out over two legs and three hours, the thousands who had crammed into Ewood Park’s away stand, the Darwen End, were singing the old song about going to Wembley. And it was a chant the other three sides of the stadium, whose empty seats were mocked by those who had travelled from the Midlands, might have anticipated.
There was not much optimism in this wintry corner of the Pennines. Since Sheffield Wednesday were overcome by Graeme Souness’s men in 2002, Blackburn have lost six semi-finals and a survey of readers in the town’s evening paper, The Lancashire Evening Telegraph, was larded with foreboding.
One commented that because Sam Allardyce’s team would be unable to match Aston Villa’s speed and skill in the second leg, Blackburn would need a minimum 2-0 victory here. There was no need to wait for Villa Park; they were undone by James Milner’s fabulous display of skill and speed on their own pitch before launching a belated series of counter-attacks.
Allardyce appeared on Ewood’s big screens just before kick-off, giving a preview of a night on which Blackburn’s season could comfortably have been said to rest, looking rather more downbeat than usual. It is almost 13 months since his arrival at Blackburn and if he has achieved what was asked of him by repairing the shambles of Paul Ince’s brief rule, he has found it harder to push on.
Ten years ago he made his name as a late-blooming managerial force in a season in which he took Bolton to the semi-finals of both domestic cups. Both were lost but for the club and its manager, they were stepping stones to greater things. In a sense, Allardyce is back at the Reebok; attempting to get a poorly-supported club with limited resources to punch above its weight. The recruitment of Michel Salgado echoes that of another veteran of the Bernebéu, Ivan Campo at Bolton, but his impact, by comparison, has been limited. Only when Nikola Kalinic twice struck the frame of the goal, did Blackburn look as if they might land a killer blow. Second-half Blackburn were vastly better than first-half Blackburn but, as the jeers of derision that greeted the interval suggested, they could scarcely have been worse.
There was none of the drive and sense of heroic purpose that marked their quarter-final victory over Chelsea. The same big screen on which Allardyce gave his interview played footage of that victory over a soundtrack of David Bowie’s Heroes.
Football clubs use this rather inappropriate song a lot, just as in the 1980s a lot of weddings played Police’s Every Breath You Take for the bride and groom’s first dance. “Heroes” with its chorus of “just for one day” is about the romantic hopelessness and heroic impossibility of success, hence the quote marks around the title. For Blackburn that day was the one they overcame Chelsea and it looks unlikely to be repeated, not this season anyway.
Sam AllardyceBlackburn RoversAston VillaTim Richguardian.co.uk
