Blackburn Rovers 1 Gillingham 0

Match 36/17/1486 - Saturday, 30th September 2017 - League One

Blackburn Rovers (1) 1 Samuel 30
Gillingham (0) 0
Attendance: 10,844
New Ground: 317

Entrance: £17 Senior
Programme: £3
Mileage: 586/2,548

Match Report

A rare away trip with Gillingham was more about a ground tick than any expectation of any performance of merit from the Gills.

Seventeen years ago I not only missed the previous opportunity of removing Ewood Park from my list of grounds to do, I also missed a stunning win with goals from Andy Hessenthaler and an own goal to beat a Blackburn side that contained such names as Mark Hughes, Brad Friedel, David Dunn and other household names. A repeat of that result would have been as seismic today as it was in 2000.

Gone are the days when I would drive the near-600 mile round trip in a day, these days it is preferable to make it an overnight stay; a little break with my wife and my brother and his wife. Blackburn might not rank too highly on many people’s romantic weekend away but from our Premier Inn hotel room overlooking the cathedral and the statue of Queen Victoria it was pleasant enough.

As it was raining (it is always raining in Blackburn, we were told) we decided to take a taxi to the ground for which we were charged the princely sum of £3.50. How far would you get in Kent for that amount, not even through the door to the back seat would be my guess.

Ewood Park doesn’t look like a League One ground but it also doesn’t look like the home of a club that has won the Premier League until you are reminded with a statue of the architect of that success, Jack Walker.

The programme was adorned with a cover photograph of Bradley Dack. I doubt that it was coincidental, or even a wind-up, just recognition of his former club’s visit, to whom he said in the article, he owed a great deal. He was substituted after an hour, something that appears a regular occurrence, but it was disappointing that he failed to acknowledge the warm applause that he received from the visiting support. Dack looked a little short of the player in his pomp at Priestfield but better and leaner than the one that left during the summer.

To summarise the game, taking anything from it looked unlikely at the break trailing by a single goal and being totally dominated but had Peter Taylor the bottle to replace the useless Connor Wilkinson when he made his first, pointless, substitution on the hour rather than with 15 minutes to go, a point might not have been beyond merit.

It was another ex-Gillingham player, former loanee Dominic Samuel, who hooked home from close range following a header back across the face of goal from Charlie Mulgrew after half-an-hour. At that point of the game the visitors had provided absolutely nothing of a positive note.

When Elliott List and Greg Cundle were introduced, pace was added and a final 15 minute assault might have borne fruit with just a little good fortune (or better finishing) although Derrick Williams smacked a shot against the post for the hosts.

Blackburn’s goalkeeper, David Raya, almost gifted the Gills an equaliser when he misplaced a clearance straight at Josh Parker, but the ball at his feet caught the Gills player by surprise and rebounded straight back to safety.

But Raya made amends late in the game when he made an exceptional save to deny List with Finn O’Mara sending the rebound into the side netting.

The final whistle brought down the curtain on a thumping that didn’t happen but plenty of thoughts that a less conservative manager than Taylor might have speculated and accumulated.

Ground tick done, unfortunately expectations not raised.