Preview
Well, another Christmas Day survived and from the limited information available it looks like there’ll be no changes to our side for this afternoon’s festive encounter. Like everyone else, I wish we’d met Blackburn before they’d got the shot in the arm that Big Sam’s arrival has given them but with those two high-scoring wins behind us I’m feeling confident that we can win again today. Benni McCarthy is in a goal-scoring mood and I can see him getting one but Cisse and Kenwyne are on a great roll too and I think we’re going to win, probably 2-1.

The Match
After a couple of pints of Woodpeckers in Fitzgerald’s we joined the crowds heading towards the ground in the sunshine and as we passed the Empire I thought of what my mother told me this morning about the recently-departed Eartha Kitt. Mam was working there years ago when Eartha was appearing in a play and she said she sat on her desk one day and asked her where she could get some great fish and chips. Mam told her and her manager was promptly dispatched to go and fetch.

Anyway, when I arrived the ground was almost full and the mood was high, a bit too optimistic for my liking, as I took my seat in the East Stand. The minute’s silence was well-observed but the list of names seemed to be longer than usual. There was a strange, lackadaisical atmosphere for the first twenty minutes or so and then it picked up a bit but though we were showing plenty of bite in defence and the midfield was linking together well our attack was strangely muted. Cisse was ruled offside twice but apart from that we weren’t pressurizing enough for my liking. This was exemplified when a Blackburn defender had all the time in the world to stoop and chest it back to Robinson in goal while we had several players in their box. Our approach play was fine but it was the old final-third-itis again. 0-0 at half-time was okay for now and other results/latest scores were largely going our way.

It looked like they’d gone one-up a minute or two into the second half when the ball was in the net but there’d been a handball and we breathed again. Five minutes later they had a free-kick in a dangerous position that was well saved by Fulop and/or the right post. Just before the hour-mark Blackburn put together a great move down the left and Pedersen shot well but Fulop made a fine save to concede a corner. As time went on it seemed less and less likely that we’d ever score and both Cisse and Kenwyne weren’t winning much at all in the air. In fact they didn’t seem to be jumping for a lot of the high balls that came their way and there were a lot of angry cries from the fans all around me. With ten minutes to go Cisse was replaced by Murphy and Leadbitter replaced Richardson but though Murphy went on a couple of impressive runs, they came to nothing and 0-0 was looking a certainty. There were three minutes of stoppage time and somehow or other Blackburn failed to win the game when Jason Roberts, despite the attentions of three of our defenders and Fulop, managed to get himself into an excellent spot with the goal gaping before him but he thankfully put it wide. So 0-0 it was and everyone near me seemed fairly happy to be honest, not as happy as the Blackburn fans of course. The results of our immediate rivals in the table i.e. just about everyone except the top six went generally well for us and I think we gained ground on five sides.

ALS Books click here