I
It's Character Forming
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The long trip away to Blackburn. Not nearly as bad for me as for many, mind. The home crowd was pitifully small and we took an impressive contingent across the country for an evening game. Last time I was here we'd just secured 40 points in Lamberts Prem season and were basically safe and lost 2-0 I seem to remember .
Our lineup : at the back as expected Ruddy, Whittaker, Martin, Bassong, Olsson.
Midfield saw Tettey rested with his knee and also being on 9 yellow cards. So Dorrans came in with Howson, BJ, Redmond and Hoolahan in midfield. Grabban up front. Pretty attacking lineup really. Controversial perhaps leaving Tettey out but I wasn't surprised.
The game started with City dominating possession but no end product and after a few minutes Blackburn started to come into it with a more direct style which created a couple of half chances but nothing really to threaten at either end. There was a minor alarm when Ruddy lost a back pass and had to scurry back.
Mid half we gave away possession cheaply and Blackburn broke down our right; Whittaker mistimed the tackle and gave away a free kick which was well placed into the centre of the box and their striker was unmarked to head home- really poor defending.
This rattled City but after a few minutes we came back into it creating several openings but often our buildup was just painfully slow, Redmond's area of the pitch was congested giving him little scope to run. Wes was having a great game and was at the centre of most of our good moves. He was also fouled repeatedly - no need to "go down easily" but unfortunately not in the box.
The best of the chances was a cross which Olsson headed back and it fell perfectly at Grabban's feet but he missed his kick when you'd have bet on him to score.
So the half ended with City on top but unable to get the breakthrough to draw level and in truth we hadn't troubled the keeper
2nd half we opened brightly and drew a couple of early but routine saves from their keeper. But only 10 mins in AN decided to sub Jerome for Redmond. Initially it looked to e a mistake as we lost control of possession and Jerome was basically stood around up front with no service and Blackburn had their best spell of possession and the home fans started to make some noise.
One bizarre incident was one of their players sitting down about 3 foot from the touchline and being "helped off" after they'd put the ball out. Also a challenge by Jerome on the keeper got the home fans very excited.
But about 10 mins after he came on we put together a good move and the keeper saved a shot by Grabban (I think( and Jerome put away the rebound to bring us level despite Us playing quite poorly in the minutes before . This shut up the home fans and the away fans made most of the noise from here on.
The rest of the game was packed with incident and I may get some of the timings wrong. Tettey came on for Dorrans who'd done well but was tiring. Instantly this reestablished our control of the game and we began to test their keeper properly. At the other end they had a quick winger who gave Whitts some difficult moments and although we looked much more likely to score they weren't out of it.
With 85 mins gone a good piece of improvisation on the edge of the box setup BJ for one of his trademark 20 yard blasters into the top corner - has there ever been a City player who's shooting has improved so dramatically ?
Blackburn were now pushing on for an equaliser and it was backs to the wall stuff, their best chance ( can't remember if this was before or after our 2nd) was a driven cross which BJ 's clearance attempt only flicked goalwards but fortunately Ruddy was able to make an inspired save to palm it over one-handed,
As the clock ticked past 90 there were 4 minutes stoppage time - an underestimate if anything. Blackburn forced corner after corner and there was some desperate defending to stop them creating any real chances, but it was nerve wracking stuff. At the other end on the break Grabban put in a fine shot which looked to be our 3rd but it was well saved.
With 30 seconds left they forced another corner and their keeper came up, there was an almighty melee in the box but fortunately Ruddy was able to come over it and claim the ball. The whistle blew for end of the game and the City players went into a huddle and then applauded the away fans who stayed in numbers to celebrate for a few minutes - the home fans had been streaming away since we took the lead.
So an important and very gutsy win - with all the other top teams winning this keeps us in place and while many of their games were "bankers" this was anything but.
So. Another game Sunday - who is it we're playing again?
Our lineup : at the back as expected Ruddy, Whittaker, Martin, Bassong, Olsson.
Midfield saw Tettey rested with his knee and also being on 9 yellow cards. So Dorrans came in with Howson, BJ, Redmond and Hoolahan in midfield. Grabban up front. Pretty attacking lineup really. Controversial perhaps leaving Tettey out but I wasn't surprised.
The game started with City dominating possession but no end product and after a few minutes Blackburn started to come into it with a more direct style which created a couple of half chances but nothing really to threaten at either end. There was a minor alarm when Ruddy lost a back pass and had to scurry back.
Mid half we gave away possession cheaply and Blackburn broke down our right; Whittaker mistimed the tackle and gave away a free kick which was well placed into the centre of the box and their striker was unmarked to head home- really poor defending.
This rattled City but after a few minutes we came back into it creating several openings but often our buildup was just painfully slow, Redmond's area of the pitch was congested giving him little scope to run. Wes was having a great game and was at the centre of most of our good moves. He was also fouled repeatedly - no need to "go down easily" but unfortunately not in the box.
The best of the chances was a cross which Olsson headed back and it fell perfectly at Grabban's feet but he missed his kick when you'd have bet on him to score.
So the half ended with City on top but unable to get the breakthrough to draw level and in truth we hadn't troubled the keeper
2nd half we opened brightly and drew a couple of early but routine saves from their keeper. But only 10 mins in AN decided to sub Jerome for Redmond. Initially it looked to e a mistake as we lost control of possession and Jerome was basically stood around up front with no service and Blackburn had their best spell of possession and the home fans started to make some noise.
One bizarre incident was one of their players sitting down about 3 foot from the touchline and being "helped off" after they'd put the ball out. Also a challenge by Jerome on the keeper got the home fans very excited.
But about 10 mins after he came on we put together a good move and the keeper saved a shot by Grabban (I think( and Jerome put away the rebound to bring us level despite Us playing quite poorly in the minutes before . This shut up the home fans and the away fans made most of the noise from here on.
The rest of the game was packed with incident and I may get some of the timings wrong. Tettey came on for Dorrans who'd done well but was tiring. Instantly this reestablished our control of the game and we began to test their keeper properly. At the other end they had a quick winger who gave Whitts some difficult moments and although we looked much more likely to score they weren't out of it.
With 85 mins gone a good piece of improvisation on the edge of the box setup BJ for one of his trademark 20 yard blasters into the top corner - has there ever been a City player who's shooting has improved so dramatically ?
Blackburn were now pushing on for an equaliser and it was backs to the wall stuff, their best chance ( can't remember if this was before or after our 2nd) was a driven cross which BJ 's clearance attempt only flicked goalwards but fortunately Ruddy was able to make an inspired save to palm it over one-handed,
As the clock ticked past 90 there were 4 minutes stoppage time - an underestimate if anything. Blackburn forced corner after corner and there was some desperate defending to stop them creating any real chances, but it was nerve wracking stuff. At the other end on the break Grabban put in a fine shot which looked to be our 3rd but it was well saved.
With 30 seconds left they forced another corner and their keeper came up, there was an almighty melee in the box but fortunately Ruddy was able to come over it and claim the ball. The whistle blew for end of the game and the City players went into a huddle and then applauded the away fans who stayed in numbers to celebrate for a few minutes - the home fans had been streaming away since we took the lead.
So an important and very gutsy win - with all the other top teams winning this keeps us in place and while many of their games were "bankers" this was anything but.
So. Another game Sunday - who is it we're playing again?
