Antolin Alcaraz celebrates the Wigan winner

Wigan Athletic secured an eighth season in the Premier League with a deserved victory and in the process relegated crisis club Blackburn Rovers.

When Rovers Indian owners took over in 2010 they did not appreciate that the club could be relegated but the reality of relegation to the Championship must be all too real this morning.

Antolin Alcaraz headed Wigan’s winner from a Jean Beausejour corner in the 87th minute, but it was only what Wigan deserved as they had wasted a succession of chances to finish off their opponents. In the first half Franco Di Santo had twice gone close and Paul Robinson saved well from Moses before he squandered a gift of a back-post header from Di Santo’s superb deep cross.

In the second half Moses once again missed a couple of good opportunities and Shaun Maloney headed over the bar when he rose too early to meet a cross by Moses.

Blackburn had a penalty appeal denied in the second half, when Emmerson Boyce clipped Junior Hoilett’s heel, and they troubled Ali Al-Habsi in the Wigan goal with a series of high balls into the box but the away team were always the more likely to score and in the process relegate Rovers.

In the strange surroundings of a hostile home crowd chanting for the removal of the Indian owners Venkys and manager Steve Kean, Wigan had to maintain their concentration and focus on the crucial task in hand. The prospect of a mass pitch invasion from the protesters was always a possibility and one Rovers fan did get on the pitch and in a rather futile gesture throw his season ticket towards the beleaguered Kean, but the ticket only ended up near Martinez.

Even the bizarre sight of a chicken dressed in Rovers colours entering the pitch in Ali Al Habsi’s goalmouth could not distract them from achieving this historic result. Al Habsi, of course saved the chicken, not much gets past the Wigan keeper!

Wigan completed the season winning six of their last eight matches, beating Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and Newcastle in the process. Some of Wigan’s play during this run has been a joy to watch and more in keeping with a top four club than a team fighting against relegation.

Huge credit should go out to Manager Roberto Martinez who has once again preserved their Premier League status while trimming 10% from the wage bill.

Some Wigan fans had been critical of the manager during the early part of the season, but the majority stayed supportive and their faith in him has been vindicated with a historic eighth season in the top flight.

There will be big celebrations at the DW stadium for Wigan’s final game against already relegated Wolves next Sunday. As there should be, as it is a remarkable achievement for a small club with such limited resources to stay at this level for eight seasons.

Blackburn’s Marcus Olsson, left, and Yakubu walk from the pitch after their 1-0 loss to Wigan. -Photo by AP

BLACKBURN: Blackburn Rovers were relegated from the Premier League on Monday after a 1-0 defeat at home to Wigan Athletic ended their 11-year stay in the top flight.

Rovers had to win to have a chance of keeping their survival bid going to Sunday’s final day of the season, when they travel to Chelsea.

But it was north-west rivals Wigan who ensured their Premier League status when Antolin Alcaraz headed in the only goal of the game three minutes from time to remove the threat of relegation hanging over Roberto Martinez’s side.

Rovers went into the match six points from safety but they were always on the back foot against a Wigan side that confirmed their top-flight place when Paraguayan defender Alcaraz’s late header earned a sixth win in eight matches.

Consecutive victories in March took Blackburn, who only avoided relegation on the final day of last season, as high as 16th in the table.

However, a run of six defeats in seven put them back into trouble and relegation brings to an end a miserable campaign for the club, who were Premier League champions in 1995.

Despite the knowledge that a win would keep their survival hopes alive, the match was dominated by supporter protests against Rovers manager Steve Kean and unpopular owners Venky’s, an Indian poultry firm, who arrived in November 2010 promising big signings such as Ronaldinho and David Beckham.

Even before kick-off there were chants for Kean to be sacked and they continued throughout the game.

A chicken, dressed in Blackburn colours, was thrown onto the pitch in the early stages and just after half-time a supporter sprinted across the pitch and threw his season ticket in the air when he reached the dug-outs.

After a surprise run of results, which included victories over Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool, Wigan only needed a point to confirm their Premier League status.

But instead it was the visitors who began like the team that needed a win at a rainswept Ewood Park, with Victor Moses hitting a shot off-target and Franco di Santo breaking through only to be denied by Rovers keeper Paul Robinson.

Wigan were always in control of possession and after Moses broke away from Scott Dann his shot was turned wide by Robinson.

Morten Gamst Pedersen fired a free-kick well over the bar for the hosts and Shaun Maloney also dragged wide after Blackburn failed to clear the Scot’s free-kick.
Wigan, whose owner Dave Whelan is a former Blackburn player, should have taken the lead when di Santo was sent into space down the right and sent over a cross to the far post that Moses headed wide from six yards.

After the interval, Wigan’s Chilean winger Jean Beausejour had a drive deflected wide and Gary Caldwell pulled off a fine block from Yakubu after Dann headed down Junior Hoilett’s corner at the other end.

Yakubu just failed to get a touch on Pedersen’s free-kick as the hosts finally generated some pressure.

After di Santo dragged wide, Maloney also had a free-kick deflected over the bar before Anthony Modeste shot straight at Wigan goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi from 20 yards.

Moses was shown a yellow card after he went down under Pedersen’s challenge in the area as Wigan looked for a breakthrough.

Al Habsi produced a scrambling save from Hoilett’s scuffed shot and Robinson pulled off a fine double save from Moses and James McCarthy at the other end.

Maloney also wasted a fine chance when he lifted a header over the bar from Emmerson Boyce’s cross.

But three minutes before the end a Beausejour corner was met with enough power by Alcaraz’s header to beat Robinson’s despairing dive.

Angry Blackburn supporters invaded the pitch at the final whistle after Rovers’ relegation was confirmed.

It would appear that the new owners had no idea about what they had bought and BBC Radio 5 was saying last night, that they’d thought they’d bought a franchise which couldn’t be relegated and an endless cash chicken.

Someone emphasised the latter, by bringing a chicken to the match, complete with its own team shirt. Read the report in that new tabloid, the Guardian.

It is a very sad affair and is another club that has got into trouble because of inappropriate and/or stupid ownership.

I felt particularly upset last night for Dave Whelan. the Wigan owner, as his team sent them down. He had been a Blackburn player in the 1960 Cup Final, when he was carried off due to a broken leg.

Typically, their season ended with a whimper, not a bang, on the field and a vicious round of blood-letting off it — the howling fury directed at the manager and his employers at once shocking, if not surprising.

That does not mean it was unwarranted, however. If the abuse directed at Steve Kean has been extreme so, too, is Blackburn’s decline on his watch. He stood in the rain last night, looking on impotently as Antolin Alcaraz scored Wigan Athletic’s winner, his ungrounded optimism finally at an end.

We’re up! Antolin Alcaraz (second left) leads the celebrations as Wigan won Premier League survival

Match-winner: Antolin Alcaraz (fourth left) heads in the decisive goal at Ewood Park

There are no more corners to turn, no more bright sides on which to look. Kean was, as suspected, just another Avram Grant. And much as Grant’s self-serving belief in an upturn was of no use to West Ham United last season, so the Pollyanna tendency in Kean was worthless for Blackburn.

Like Grant, he should have gone mid-season when there was still a chance; instead Blackburn sleepwalked towards the inevitable until last night, when the chickens came home to roost.
Sorry. But ownership by a poultry firm is a gag writer’s dream in the event of relegation, particularly when the campaign has been a cluck-up from start to finish. Sorry again. That’s the last one. Promise.

Kean will take the brunt of the criticism, but his absentee employers are the real culprits here. It seems almost surreal that in January 2011, Kean was talking of a bid for Ronaldinho as a statement of their intent. He never arrived, not that Blackburn needed Ronaldinho anyway. Ronnie Corbett would have been able to get into this team.

In the end, there were no stellar signings, just significant departures. Phil Jones and Christopher Samba most harmfully, but the drip, drip of leaking players has been near constant since Venky’s arrived.

Pitch invader: A chicken was released in protest against Blackburn owners, Venky’s

Game for a laugh: Yakubu and Ali Al Habsi watch on as the cockerel makes its way across the pitch

To the rescue: Wigan goalkeeper Al Habsi catches the cockerel in the goal-net

The ranks have been reduced, despite assurances to the contrary, and promises of a golden future have not been kept. Venky’s did not have the financial clout for the Premier League and some even doubt they understood the rules of engagement.

What lies beneath will be a harsher reckoning than they could ever have imagined. Reduced funds, reduced fans — only 3,000 season tickets have been sold for next season and star players including Yakubu were reduced to working front of house in the club shop last week in a desperate attempt to encourage renewal.

There was never an atmosphere of fierce resistance at Ewood Park for Blackburn’s last stand. From the start the supporters were in mutinous mood, even if the protests, like the football, often bordered on the comical.

A chicken, draped in a small Blackburn flag was let loose in Wigan’s penalty area during the first-half, spending more time there and proving more elusive than any Blackburn forward.

Restless natives: Blackburn fans protested against Venky’s and manager Steve Kean

Seen enough: A Blackburn fan throws his ticket near Steve Kean before being escorted away by police

Later, a slightly less mobile protestor ran onto the field to throw his season ticket at the feet of the manager — the wrong manager as it turned out. Wigan’s Roberto Martinez was left looking bemused at the scrap of rubbish, a bizarre statement considering this was the last home game of the season anyway.

At the end, a few dozen angry men made it onto the pitch to demonstrate in front of the directors box and one hundred or so occupied a corner of the Ronnie Clayton Stand after the game, announcing they would not leave until Kean was sacked. Stewards eyed them warily, but did nothing.

Mischievous: A plane flies over Ewood Park with a message of support for Venky’s from Burnley fans

They’ve had it worse here this season, with Kean now accompanied by a security detail and the owners nowhere to be seen. Relegation would wrench the club from the unflinching spotlight anyway. In the Championship, no-one can hear you scream.

So what was the match like? The usual, really. Indeed, it was testament to Blackburn’s doomed status that Wigan — seemingly relegation certainties until recently — elected to treat them, not as equals, but underdogs.

How else to explain the many attempts to score glory goals when simpler efficiency would have finished the job? Arsenal at their most infuriating play inferiors this way, trying the impossible, going for goal of the season when a straightforward square ball would yield the easiest of tap-ins. It was as if Wigan’s players believed they could score at any time, so wanted some fun first.

Agony: Blackburn Rovers manager Steve Kean (right) reacts with frustration during the game

The worst culprit was Victor Moses, hugely talented and surely destined to step up a class this summer. He squandered several opportunities, most frustratingly after 24 minutes. Scott Dann attempted to shepherd him out of play near the by-line but Moses turned quickly, shrugging off a wet rag of a tackle and heading for goal. His angle was narrow, almost impossible, and a smidgen of thought could surely have created the opener.

But Moses instead tried to shoot and found goalkeeper Paul Robinson obscuring his path. There was little sign of frustration in the Wigan ranks, however. They knew the defining moment would arrive eventually; as it proved.

Down and out: Blackburn’s players face up to relegation from the Premier League

Blackburn were as good as down by then anyway, a draw yielding the same outcome as a defeat, but Alcaraz’s header served only to   crystalize the anger. The denunciations of Kean and Venky’s doubled in force and noise, the febrile atmosphere grew ever more intense.

Blackburn have been relegated from the Premier League before, of course, but it did not feel like this.

So much is wrong now, there is so little unity in this club, so little  positivity, certainly around the first-team group.

The most depressing message here — beyond the oaths and excesses heaped on a man for failure — is the utter powerlessness of supporters when faced with distant owners who refuse to engage.
In their absence, Kean has been the Aunt Sally, the visible symbol of a damaged administration. In the final minutes his optimism, his stoicism, were worthless in the face of an overwhelming ineffectuality.

Where Blackburn go from here, who knows? They have fallen far, yet there is so far yet to fall.

But they soon ditched Sam Alllardyce and appointed Steve Kean as the new coach. They somehow managed to escape the first season from the relegation zone. And they knew it would be very tough for them to remain in top flight. As the new teams promoted were doing really good.

So whole lot was on the shoulder of Steve kean and his men. Even though they managed to surprise Manchester united, the season was more of a flop show for them. With supporters protesting against the Venky’s and Kean. The situation had become more intense than ever before.

14^th January was the first time they got above relegation zone by defeating Fulham 3-1 but then they sold their most prolific player Samba to Anzi. A loss against Liverpool and then against spurs made sure they had very little hope of surviving.

Wigan had to just get a point at the Ewood park to survive but Rovers could only provide a chicken for them. Resulting into their relegation into the championship division. Hope venky’s can manage to keep some of its player by providing some chicken to them else very soon the chicken would be headless.  Leg piece

Although Blackburn lost 1-0 to Wigan and are now certain to be relegated this season. They won big points on the creative protests scale.

In November, they showed their arts and crafts abilities by rendering a protest ban completely useless.

Then their weapon of choice was an airplane which had been instructed to fly over the stadium during the game with the fans’ current mantra ‘Kean Out’ attached to it.

Yesterday, a live chicken was their weapon of choice. Wearing the  Blackburn flag as a cape, the proud fowl invaded the pitch early in the first half of  Blackburn’s relegation battle again Wigan.

He succeeded to stop the game until he was caught in the Wigan goal net by the Wigan goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi and Blackburn’s Yakubu.

The chicken was released as a protest against Blackburn’s unpopular owners, the Indian poultry giants, Venkys. Thus answering the age old question of ‘Why did the chicken cross the road?’

Move over Anfield cat, there is a new animal hero in the premier league — The Blackburn chicken.

Rovers’ relegation confirmed in atmosphere of bitter resignation but Wigan supporters hail Roberto Martínez after team’s escape

On the night , a wet and gloomy one, there was little between the two sides but everything between the two managers and the two sets of supporters.

Roberto Martínez is running a happy camp, having talked a much better game all season than Wigan were actually playing, but crucially he has come through with results and performances when it mattered. Steve Kean has also stretched the credulity of his local audience with his pronouncements and promises this season, although the Blackburn manager ran out of goodwill many months ago. His team merely confirmed supporters’ worst suspicions by producing their worst sequence of results just when it looked as though they had given themselves a chance of climbing away from trouble.

Rovers fans have been convinced all season that they are going down – they avoided the drop only on the last day last time – and when it became certain the atmosphere was one of defeated resignation. Though Ewood has almost boiled over with anger and bitt er hostility on occasions this season, this was not one of those nights. No one could mistake the home crowd for a cheery band of pilgrims, or possibly run away with the idea that they admire Venky’s or their choice of manager. It was just that the protests were more intense and passionate when there was still a chance of changing something.

Now it is too late, a point perhaps unintentionally made by a pitch invader at the start of the second half, who milked the crowd’s applause by making his way to the technical area and ostentatiously hurling his season ticket towards Kean. He actually dropped it at Martínez’s feet, yet making such a sacrifice at the last home game of the season was already an empty gesture.

Perhaps he was objecting to the manager’s unusual line in motivational messages. “We must do all we can to ensure the Wigan team bus is a very quiet and subdued place on the way home,” Kean said quite bizarrely beforehand. Another target missed.

Apa rt from Martínez refusing to toast success with anything stronger than water, the Wigan coach home must have been a party all the way. “It is time to celebrate,” he said. “An eighth Premier League season is a remarkable achievement for this club.” This is the time of year when the tough get going, and Wigan got going some weeks ago. It was the home side, extending a dreadful run to seven defeats in eight games, whose excursions have been ending in the sound of silence.

Not that Ewood has known anything as soothing as silence all season. The “Kean Out” chants began before kick-off and intensified once the game got under way. The home fans in the Ronnie Clayton Blackburn end led a noisy chorus of “There’s only one lying bastard” just a couple of minutes after kick-off, following up for good measure with “Stand up if you hate Venky’s”. Wigan supporters, as Dave Whelan noted last week, have never called for Martínez’s dismissal despite the most trying of mid-season losin g runs, and high in the Darwen End contented themelves with the boast: “We are staying up”, as if anyone from Blackburn was about to argue.

“Bobby, Bobby give us a wave,” the Wigan fans tried next, and Martínez duly did. It must be some time since the Rovers manager has been asked the same thing, if indeed he ever has been, and when a section of the home support ironically offered the invitation moments later Kean wisely kept his hands in his pockets.

The game was briefly held up in the first half for a fowl in the Wigan penalty area. Yakubu Ayegbeni and Ali Al-Habsi were the first to pluck up courage to tackle the feathered intruder while a gaggle of stewards stood by and watched, possibly in agreement with the anti-Venky’s protest but more likely thinking up chicken-based puns like everyone else.

By the halfway stage Wigan could have been a goal or two up but for Paul Robinson’s goalkeeping. As long as the game remained scoreless the Ewood crowd seemed r eluctant to unleash the full force of their fury towards the team, though plenty of chants continued to be aimed at Kean, “He’s taking us down” being about the most charitably polite. As half-time approached, in a startling contrast of moods for two teams at the wrong end of the table, the Wigan fans could be heard working on a jolly and adventurous rendition of “I’m a believer” while the Blackburn supporters at the same end lamented the lack of shots on target and greeted a wasted Morten Gamst Pedersen free-kick with an impassioned: “That’s why we’re going down.”

Four minutes from the end Antolín Alcaraz made sure there was to be no escape for Rovers. Cue boos, walkouts and more anti-Kean chants, but nothing out of the ordinary, unless you count the sight of Wigan supporters celebrating before the final day of the season. There was a pitch invasion at the end but it was tiny, only a couple of dozen disgruntled and remarkably well-behaved fans. The vast majority just lingered in their seats, as if taking a last look at Premier League football or reflecting on the habit of chickens of coming home to roost. Blackburn’s strongish claims for a second-half penalty when Emmerson Boyce appeared to trip Junior Hoilett got a mention at Kean’s press conference yet made no impression on Wigan. But for Pedersen getting away with an outrageous corner kick scam to earn a draw at the DW in November, Blackburn might not have lasted this long.

What comes around and so on. Blackburn’s fate appears to have been coming around for some time. The battle has been lost, seemingly along with East Lancashire’s stomach for an argument. Read More

• Wigan safe after 1-0 victory at Ewood Park < br />• ‘I’m a big believer in my own ability,’ says Blackburn manager

Steve Kean, Blackburn’s besieged manager, insisted he would not resign his post at Ewood Park despite Rovers’ first relegation for 11 years prompting a torrent of abuse from supporters towards the Scot and the club’s owners, Venky’s.

Blackburn were consigned to the Championship last night after Antolín Alcaraz’s 87th-minute winner for Wigan Athletic completed the visitors’ impressive escape from relegation danger under Roberto Martínez. Wigan have won six of their last eight matches to preserve their top-flight status for an eighth year. Rovers exited the Premier League after a sequence of seven defeats in eight games.

Rovers supporters turned against their manager over a year ago; in their eyes he is a puppet of an error-strewn Venky’s regime and Kean’s personal bodyguard had to appeal to the Glaswegian to go down the tunnel for his own safety when the final whistle prompted a mini-p itch invasion. Kean declined the request and later claimed he still had the backing of the club’s Indian-based owners, confidence in his own ability and faith in his players’ ability to return to the Premier League next season.

“It is difficult to put into words what the atmosphere is like in the dressing room,” the Blackburn manager said. “A few things were thrown our way in the media last week, questioning our attitude, but I felt tonight we gave it a real good go. The disappointing thing is we couldn’t take it to the last game.

“I will sit down with the owners and discuss a plan on how to assemble a squad to help us bounce back up straight away. We need to try to keep the majority of the squad together and add one or two experienced players that can help us, so from the first game of the season we are ready to bounce back and make sure we are in the division we should be in. I have spoken with the owners, like I do every day. We haven’t mentioned what has happ ened tonight but I am confident we will have a sit-down and have a plan in place as quickly as possible. I do believe I’ll be here next season.”

Kean declined an invitation to apportion blame for Blackburn’s demise on Venky’s. “As a group we have to build a squad as quickly as possible and keep the backbone of the team together,” he said. “The division below is a very tough one to get out of.”

Asked why he wanted to remain in a job amid such hostility, Kean said: “Because I am a big believer in my own ability and the guys in the dressing room. They are all devastated but I cannot fault their commitment. If we can keep them together and add a few more of quality, I am convinced we can bounce back.”

The Blackburn defender Bradley Orr claimed Kean retained the full support of the dressing room despite the team’s meek exit from the Premier League. Orr said: “The gaffer stood out there tonight and took a lot of stick, I’ve got nothing but admiration and respect for him. He’s done everything he could to push us in the right direction and motivate us. The tactics, training, everything – one man who can look in the mirror and say he’s given everything is the manager.

“I’ll speak for the dressing room and thank him for what he’s done, he’s taken things on the chin that he shouldn’t have had to. The supporters voice their opinions in whatever way they want towards the owners, the players and the manager. Sometimes a line can be crossed and the way the gaffer’s handled things is exemplary. He’s certainly the best I’ve worked with as far as managers go.”

For the Wigan chairman, Dave Whelan, who spent over 10 years as a player at Blackburn, the relegation of his former club on a night of joy for Martínez and his players produced torn emotions. “I’m really sorry we put Rovers down,” he said. “I had 11 fantastic years here. Of course, I’m Wigan Athletic through and through but I’m sorry Rovers have gone down.”

As for Ma rtínez’s assured leadership under pressure, with Wigan in the bottom three for the majority of the campaign, the chairman said: “He [Martínez] has had faith from day one and we had a really tough start to the season but he always believed and had faith in his players. As the season has gone along we’ve played better and better and I think Roberto has proved once and for all that he is a quality manager. I believe Roberto will go to one of the top European clubs when the time is right but hopefully we can hold on to him for one or more years. We can’t do things like Man City and Man Utd and the big clubs but if we can be in the top half of the Premier League it would be a wonderful achievement.”

Match report, page 45 Read More

They arrived with visions of Ronaldinho and David Beckham, sacked Sam Allardyce on the grounds he was not the man to deliver Champions League football and asked a coach with no managerial experience for improvement on a reduced budge t. It would be too glib to say the chickens have come home to roost for Venky’s, the Indian poultry company who bought Blackburn Rovers in November 2010, but its calamitous reign has brought the result the club’s suffering support has long feared was inevitable under Steve Kean. The Championship awaits.

Blackburn would have been seventh in the Premier League had Allardyce won his final game as manager. Defeat left the club 13th, but they were still far removed from the demoralised, dispirited and inexperienced side that meekly slipped out of the top flight for the first time since 2001 after Antolín Alcaraz’s 87th minute header from a Jean Beausejour corner secured Wigan’s status for another season.

Roberto Martínez has overseen a cohesive, impassioned and impressive rise to safety. Kean, by contrast, has suffered seven defeats in eight games, and condemnation throughout the sorry demise.

He has worked within tight financial restraints throughout his 18 m onths, as Venky’s has reduced the wage bill and average age of the squad while coming under pressure itself from the club’s bankers to reduce the overdraft. Key players have been sold for hefty fees, notably Phil Jones and Chris Samba, experienced assets such as Ryan Nelsen and Brett Emerton have been allowed to walk, the former club captain with no logical explanation, while Michel Salgado has not appeared this year to spare Rovers a 12-month extension to his contract. Yet it would be remiss to absolve the manager of blame for the state of the Blackburn squad.

Eight players have arrived during Kean’s reign for a cost of more than £20m but only two – Yakubu Ayegbeni, a steal at £1.5m from Everton admittedly, and Scott Dann – started against Wigan. Bradley Orr and Anthony Modeste, a January free and loan signing respectively, completed the number of Kean recruits to a side handed the responsibility of preserving Blackburn’s Premier League status until the final da y. But it was Wigan, and a Rovers support in open revolt, who made the most convincing statement.

Kean took the bold decision to counter the wing-back system that has propelled Wigan towards safety with a three-man attack of Yakubu, Junior Hoilett and Modeste, making only his third start for the club since arriving from Bordeaux. That gave Victor Moses and Shaun Maloney freedom on both flanks to maintain their hugely impressive form, and the visitors should have established a comfortable lead by the time Rovers departed to a chorus of boos at the interval.

Franco Di Santo had the game’s first clear opportunity following a neat exchange with Moses, but Paul Robinson was equal to the striker’s low shot. The Argentinian also sliced over when Jean Beausejour’s knock-down fell to him inside the Blackburn box and Robinson’s legs came to Rovers’ rescue again when Moses skipped away from Dann near the corner flag and tried an audacious effort from an acute angle.

Moses’s confidence was understandable after an outstanding campaign, yet embarrassment was also justified when he squandered a glorious chance to head Martínez’s team into the lead 10 minutes before the break. Di Santo’s deep cross found the Nigeria international unmarked at the back post but his attempt to head back across goal was badly miscued and Rovers escaped.

The home side offered greater composure as the first half wore on but failed to construct one meaningful attack. Ali Al-Habsi, the Wigan goalkeeper, was only troubled by a pitch invasion from a chicken dressed in Blackburn colours as Rovers supporters again made clear their feelings towards the club’s owners and management.

David Dunn was raucously cheered for one committed tackle, so too the Blackburn youngsters who have reached the FA Youth Cup final against Chelsea and offer some distant hope for the future when they appeared on the pitch at half-time. But the game was played against a backdrop of incessant “Kean Out” chants, demands for Venky’s to sell up and laments for the late Jack Walker. One protestor ran on to the pitch at the start of the second half and threw his season ticket away in disgust. But at Martínez, the Wigan manager. Kean’s personal bodyguard ran to the manager’s side in complete bewilderment.

Rovers lost Dunn to injury late in the first half and were forced to replace Gaël Givet with Radosav Petrovic during the interval after paramedics were called to the Blackburn dressing room. Givet suffered a heart scare earlier in the season but the defender damaged only a hamstring here and took his place on the bench for the second half.

Blackburn belatedly discovered the intent required of the occasion and Yakubu almost grabbed his 17th goal of the season when Bradley Orr headed Morten Gamst Pedersen’s corner back across goal. Rovers’ player of the year slipped as he struck but managed to direct his effort on target only for B eausejour to clear on the line.

Modeste shot tamely at Al-Habsi when well-placed near the penalty spot and the referee dismissed strong claims for a Blackburn penalty when Hoilett appeared to be clipped from behind by Emmerson Boyce as the pair closed in on a loose ball. The match official evened matters on that score when he rightly adjudged that Moses had dived into a challenge by Olsson and booked the Wigan forward for his theatrics. Read More

The best images from the crucial relegation showdown at Ewood Park as Blackburn Rovers take on Lancashire rivals Wigan Athletic

Read More

Protests and poor performances have marked the 2011-12 campaign of Steve Kean’s team

Opening day disaster: 13 August 2011

Blackburn begin the season with a 2-1 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers at Ewood Park having taken the lead through Mauro Formica’s 20th‑minute strike

Kean’s drink-drive ban: 15 August

Steve Kean is banned from driving for 18 months after being found guilty of being almost twice the alcohol limit while on the M6

Fans’ protest: 17 September

With Blackburn in last spot, fans protest against Kean and the club’s owners, Venky’s, run by Anuradha Desai before the visit of Arsenal. The hosts win a topsy-turvy game 4-3

A year of woe: 19 November

The 12-month anniversary of the £43m purchase of Blackburn by Venky’s is marked by a 3-3 draw with Wigan Athletic that leaves the club in 19th place

Carling Cup ‘forfeit’: 30 November

Blackburn lose 2-0 to Cardiff City in the Carling Cup quarter-finals with a much-changed side. Kean admits he ‘forfeited’ the game in order to keep his players fresh for league fixtures

West Bromwic h spoil Kean’s day: 17 December

A 2-1 win for West Bromwich Albion at Ewood Park on the anniversary of Kean’s appointment as manager heaps more pressure on the Scot

No Christmas cheer: 20 December

A 2-1 loss to Bolton Wanderers means Blackburn fall to last place and the calls for Kean to be sacked reach a crescendo. Even the local newspaper wants him out

Protest push: 4 January 2012

Despite their side winning at Old Trafford, Blackburn supporters insist their protests against Kean and Venky’s will become more ‘intense’

Out of trouble: 14 January

After a 3-1 win against Fulham, Blackburn climb out of the relegation zone for the first time in the season

Samba’s sale: 24 February

Having lodged a transfer request at the turn of the year, Christopher Samba is sold to Anzhi Makhachkala for £9m

Decisive defeat: 10 April

< p>Blackburn lose 3-2 to Liverpool after playing against 10 men for the majority of the game. It is their fourth defeat in succession and leaves them in 18th

Shot-shy surrender: 29 April

Blackburn return to 19th after a 2-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur, during which they do not have a single shot on goal. The result leaves the club on the brink of relegation Read More

For explanation of the above visual, head here

Key
Blackburn Rovers= White
Wigan Athletic= Dark Blue

A 1-0 defeat at home to Wigan sends Blackburn “Our own fans hate us more than other clubs do” Rovers down to the Championship and keeps the Latics up.

Harsh on Steve Kean who has had to put up with verbal abuse from his own club’s supporters since the beginning of the season, like someone coming to your office everyday and calling you a c*nt. Actually that does happen to me. I’m not popular at work.

And to make matters worse a chicken escaped from the Venky’s factory and arrogantly galloped across the pitch. A defiant act in times of adversity.

If only the Rovers players were as plucky. YES! I knew there was another pun somewhere.

Here’s an exclusive photo of the Ewood Chicken.

Steve Kean has turned a respectable football club into a shadow of what resembles one. Senior members have slowly exited stage left from Ewood Park over the past few months, replaced by titans of football such as Modeste, Orr and Marcus Olsson. Christopher Samba is happier dealing with racist chants in Russia than he was at Ewood Park. What does that say about the club?

Venky’s since they have taken over have managed to wipe out the club’s debt, but at what cost? Revenue will certainly take a hit from not playing in the Premier League, so what is the outlook for next season’s books? Experience has been sacrificed for untested youth in the process of balancing the books, and we hope that this experience will serve the like of Lowe, Hanley, Henley, and co. for the next season. In my opinion they are bright sparks in a dark tunnel. How bright the fire they ignite remains to be seen.

“Kean out, Venky’s out!” will ring around the town of Blackburn Lancashire. Kean is a problem. 4000 holes as the Beatle’s sang, was probably a reference to the Rovers defensive line (except for Scott Dann, Scott Dann I love you man, I wish you a great career at a top club next season and hope you go to Liverpool). Venky’s I am not sure though. Unimpressed and seemingly uninterested owners but they have WIPED OUT THE DEBT!! Everything in the next few years is going to be about debts, balanced books, a silver lining in the clouds could be that Venky’s have placed Rovers on solid financial ground and maybe even a more attractive prospect to sell (if they want to, its been rumored that they will but I would not think they would do so, so soon).

It hurts, as you can probably tell from my numerous rants. I never thought this would happen but it did. The next six months will not be any less painful and each player who leaves will be a striking reminder of what the Rovers have really lost. I cannot say the do not deserve it, but I am a Rover till I die and I will be watching the Championship next season!

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3 mins: A high-tempo, highly scrappy opening. The plane carrying a message from Burnley fans has already passed Ewood Park – pictorial evidence attached.

1 min: Peeeeeeeeep! Wigan kick off, and immediately give the ball away.

The players are out. Kick-off comin’ atcha!

“Win or lose, stay up or go down, surely Steve Kean will not be in charge at Ewood Park next season,” observes John Ainsworth. “The big question is which of the top clubs will be competing for his signature? Sir Alex can’t go on for ever (and he has been gushing in his praise for Kean), Di Matteo is only a caretaker and if Mancini doesn’t win the title will there be a vacancy at City?” Interesting, John. I would have thought that Roman Abramovich would pay millions to make sure he gets the job at Old Trafford – the kind of fundraising scheme that the Glazers would surely be very keen on.

According to @06jsamsla on Twitter, Burnley fans have organised a plane with the banner ‘Agent Kean: Mission Accomplished’ to fly over Ewood tonight. That’ll stoke things up nicely for next season’s derby.

“I’m so excited for the Blackburn v Wigan MBM,” writes Marc Howlett. Why thank you, Marc. “Really! I was vacationing in London seven years ago when Wigan got promoted. One of my favorite holiday activities reading newspapers. I enjoyed all of the ‘Who are Wigan?’ stories so much that I became an avid supporter. Seven years later, we’re still in the Premier League. A win today will ensure our survival for another year. It’s truly an astonishing feat for such a small club.” I think most neutrals are hoping that Wigan stay up at the moment – they’re run over the last month or so has been astonishing, and wou ld have been even more so but for the poor performance of a linesman at Chelsea. Also Roberto Martinez deserves credit for not leaving for Aston Villa last summer, and the club for not sacking him last winter.

Tonight’s teams are in! And they look something like this. Quite a lot like this actually. Exactly like this, in fact.
Blackburn: Robinson, Orr, Dann, Givet, Martin Olsson, Hoilett, Dunn, Lowe, Pedersen, Modeste, Yakubu. Subs: Kean, Formica, Petrovic, Nzonzi, Rochina, Marcus Olsson, Goodwillie.
Wigan: Al Habsi, Alcaraz, Caldwell, Figueroa, Boyce, McArthur, McCarthy, Beausejour, Moses, Di Santo, Maloney. Subs: Pollitt, Crusat, Ben Watson, Gomez, Sammon, Rodallega, Diame.
Referee: Mark Clattenburg.

Pre-match ramble: Wigan are bang in form, having won five of their last seven games to drag thems elves from the very cusp of disaster to the very brink of security. Blackburn are bang out of form, having lost six of their last seven games to slip from the very brink of security to the very cusp of disaster.

So these are the facts: If Wigan win, their Premier League status is secure for another season. If they draw, only a last-day goal-difference turnaround of quite ludicrous proportions will relegate them. If they lose it’ll go to the final day, when they’ve got the most winnable fixture of any relegation-threatened side. They aren’t yet safe, but they’re not far off.

If Blackburn win, and then win again at Chelsea on Sunday, they might just avoid relegation. If they drop any points at all in either game, they are doomed.

The final-day relegation-region fixtures, for your information, look something like this:

Chelsea v Blackburn
Manchester City v QPR
Stoke v Bolton
Wigan< /strong> v Wolves Read More

1) Scottish Premier League: Hibernian vs. Dunfermline Athletic, 20.45 CET/14.45 EST

It is a testament to how abysmal Hibs have been this season that Dunfermline, the worst side to ‘grace’ the SPL in many a year, can still  mathematically leapfrog the once-proud Edinburgh outfit and send them spiralling into the eternal black hole that is the Scottish First Division. Worryingly for fans of the home team, the Pars’ form has improved since Jim Jefferies – a legend at city rivals Hearts – took over, and a win at Easter Road would see them close the gap on their feckless opponents to two points with one game to play. Should the worst case scenario materialise for Hibs, their ensuing Scottish Cup final encounter with Hearts would take on a whole new complexion, providing those of a maroon persuasion with a brand new set of lusty, schadenfreude-inspired songs for the occasion. For Hibs, who rather famously haven’t won the Cup since 1902, it would be a bit like finally getting a date with the busty blonde in marketing, only to discover as you walked through the door of the cheesy wine bar that you’d left your wallet in the taxi…

2) Ligue 1: Rennes vs. Montpellier, 21.00 CET/15.00 EST

Fans of cursed, middle-of-the-road, trophy-less sides across Europe will be stealing occasional sympathetic glances at the Ligue 1 scores this evening, as Montpellier strive to prove that a cursed, middle-of-the-road, trophy-less side can, with the right set of players, a lot of bottle and a large dose of luck, occasionally have a day in the sun. Said bottle will never be put to the test more stringently than at Rennes, where defeat will leave away fans facing the prospect of their team chucking the league away when, just a fortnight ago, it seemed like destiny was finally grinning down inanely at them. Billionaires’ playthings PSG, top on goal difference but having played a game more, and defending champions Lille (remarkably) simply refuse to go away, which means that the Languedoc-Roussillon club need at least a point to go into their last two fixtures as league leaders. Red cards, a 95th-minute missed penalty, on-pitch brawls, squad disharmony, controversial statements to the press and a decimated midfield have conspired to turn this into a rather tumultuous week for Montpellier, who can put all that behind them with a victory over Rennes, who are still in the hunt for a European place. All in all, it promises to be a belter in Brittany.

3) English Premier League: Blackburn Rovers vs. Wigan Athletic, 21.00 CET/15.00 EST

You’ve got to feel for Blackburn and their ever-optimistic manager, Steve Kean. You’d think that Wigan would be exactly the team they’d want to face in this position: direct relegation rivals, with just six points presently separating the two sides. A football-loving Martian landing on Earth today would probably agree. But that would be because he hadn’t got his seven pairs of hands on the Latics’ recent results, which would give the likes of Real Madrid pause for thought before taking them on. In the past few weeks, Shaun Maloney and Co. have beaten Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and Newcastle, taking 15 points from a possible 21. A win at Rovers will seal Wigan’s place in the Premier League for next season, and it would be a foolish punter who would bet against them on current form.

Martian visitor: “I’m tipping Blackburn”.

when  the duvet is calling… but there is always something to brighten the day if we look hard enough.

For instance if you are a Manchester City supporter  ( as is my brother) you may be biting your nails,  but have some belief it’s nearly there.  As a  United supporter I am taking heart from the fact that strange things can happen on the last day and come what may Manchester will reign supreme.. good enough reason for cheeriness.

This week has seen several reasons to feel good – we celebrated a great life of service to young people at a retirement party for the Chief Executive of  Nightsafe our local homeless charity.

flowers and cupcakes

what  better combination to ensure happiness… unless you go for ..

chocolate cake and  beer, which graced the Birthday Boy’s table at the Comedy Night this week. A true surprise brilliantly organised by Mrs Birthday Boy  inducing an actual jaw dropping moment we will all treasure for a long time.

As we will  the night of hilarity and tear inducing laughter that followed accompanied by tapas,  wine and great company… yes tapas in Blackburn – and excellent they were as well.

Several great combos giving reasons to be cheerful as the rain arrives… along with a couple of other goodies brightening  my day…

1.  Two weeks and I will be sitting in the Ibizan sunshine

2. Tickets confirmed for Bruce Springsteen in Prague with  brother – beyond excitement for this one – listening to Wrecking Ball as writing…

So I am going to take these memories and anticipations  with me to watch Blackburn Rovers at  Ewood Park this evening where there will, I suspect, be very few reasons to be cheerful… but we live in hope…

Perhaps QPR will have much more to celebrate than Villa if they do extend their stay in the top flight for another season, and a dramatic late winning goal marked an opportunity for their home supporters to be carried away by the moment at the end of their last home game of the season. But it was only Villa, who have now drawn 17 of their 37 league games this campaign, who got themselves safe and head into the final weekend without further concern.

Bolton are two points behind Mark Hughes’ team, Blackburn Rovers three behind IF they beat Wigan at Ewood Park this evening. Steve Kean’s side have suffered five defeats in their last six games since they lost 2-1 at Bolton in March. A win today would need to be followed by all three points at FA Cup winners Chelsea next Sunday AND then for either Wigan or QPR to lose their final game.

So there may not be a realistic route out of the bottom three for Rovers, but Bolton could win at the Britannia Stadium and stay up, despite throwing away a 2-0 lead at home to West Brom yesterday. If Wigan, who have begun to regularly find the net at just the right stage of the season, takes anything at all at Blackburn tonight, it would not only relegate their neighbours but greatly enhance their own position. Had they managed to hold out for a point at Fulham recently and then followed it up with last week’s winning performance against Newcastle then manager Roberto Martinez could have enjoyed his Manager of the month accolade.

It’s been a redemptive homecoming summer with Orlando Pirates. Until recently a figure of fun in his homeland, he is now a demigod of Soweto, thanks to a sequence of superb goals for the Sea Robbers. Not since he poked the ball between Peter Schmeichel’s legs at the 1998 World Cup has he felt as loved by his compatriots.

He was due a spot of luck. For the last three of his fourteen years abroad, Benni’s life was a luxurious mess. First came a bitter divorce from his Spanish ex-wife, Maria Jose-Santos. Then the death due to diabetes of his father Dudley; then the slow implosion of his career at West Ham United. Benni’s weight problem became a long-running comic meme. He was dropped from the 2010 World Cup squad for chatting to some girls in a hotel. He was a textbook has-been.

For most of us, this would all be a cue to lie low. But Benni went to the wall, gambling his dwindling stock of credibility on a contract with Pirates. Several other thirtysomething stars have fizzled when returning to the PSL from Europe.

“I thought it would be harder,” he says happily, while savouring a low-carb lunch of sirloin steak at the Westcliff Hotel. (He eats only two-thirds of his steak, but makes short work of the salad.) “I’ve had this love-hate relationship with the South African public, this tension, so I thought it would be a no-go zone for me.

“People who didn’t really know me had a misguided view of me. Now they have a taste of who I am, and maybe they realise I wasn’t such a big-headed troublemaker back then.”

“When I was younger, I wasn’t prepared to explain myself. I thought: if you don’t know me by now, you can make your own assumptions. But last year something inside me said, why do I want to conquer elsewhere, when I haven’t really conquered where I was from? Coming home was an opportunity to shut up all those people who used to doubt me.”

“Your own people always judge you the most harshly. But I think South Africans have become less jealous of success than they used to be. There’s more ambition now. Ordinary people want to own big buildings, do big things, and that’s good to see,” he says.

Irvin Khoza coughed up serious money to sign Benni, but even so, coming home was a financial sacrifice. “I had chances to go to Australia and the UAE, offers that normally would be too good not to take,” he says. “But I’ve made enough money to enjoy a nice lifestyle in the future.”

Benni has set up his palace in Saxonwold with his Scottish girlfriend, Stacey Munro, a suitably leggy blonde model and former Miss Glasgow. “It’s been a culture shock for her, but a nice one. She’s loving it. We met in Edinburgh. I went there on a shoot for Nike, and she was one of those pretty girls they have as extras on the set. I couldn’t concentrate on what I was supposed to do.”

“We went out that night in Edinburgh and exchanged numbers, and I told her I’d take her out in Manchester if she was ever in town. She texted me about two weeks later, saying ‘Funnily enough I’m in Manchester, shall we do coffee?’ We did more than coffee!” He guffaws.

Benni says he doesn’t miss Cape Town much – his mum aside — but the Flats are steadily reclaiming his speech, displacing the mockney tones he picked up in England. And he gets worked up recalling his ghetto days.

“My generation in Hanover Park, we were all phenomenal players. Some of them were better than me at that age. But it was more lucrative to be in a gang. You’re more popular and respected. And a whole lot of them never lived to see seventeen.”

“I think I was actually more of a cricketer than a footballer; I was a really brilliant fast bowler. Wasn’t so keen on rugby though — I didn’t like going up against those huge 12-year-old Afrikaner boys with moustaches, who looked like they’d just eaten their whole family. They would hammer the living Christ out of us township boys!”

He recalls a traumatic day when he was twelve.

“Me and my friends were chatting on a street corner opposite our block, where the Americans gang normally used to hang out. Some gangsters came past, and I went inside our flat to get something from the kitchen, and as I walked back out, I heard “PAH! PAH!” And as I looked up, I saw my friend Reginald drop. And everybody flying away. He was shot in the head, and his brains splattered on the ground. I turned and went inside and started crying. We were both twelve. And that’s when my Dad started taking no prisoners. From school, it was straight home, play in the backyard, and home by eight. And for that I’m glad. Reginald wasn’t the last one to get shot.”

Benni’s rare goalscoring ability lifted him from the mean streets at age sixteen, to Cape Town club Seven Stars. By eighteen, he was signed to Ajax Amsterdam, pocketing $80 000 a month. “The first thing that hit me was all these hot, blue-eyed blondes,” he says.

A clique of senior teammates, led by Mario Melchiot, took him on an introductory tour of the red-light district. “My heart almost stopped. I wasn’t a virgin, but I was a virgin to Europe. Now Mario and these bastards all have hats on, big coats covering their faces, sunglasses — but people are starting to notice me. That was part of the prank.”

A wide-eyed Benni was sent into the boudoir of an olive-skinned beauty – and rescued a few minutes later by his cackling teammates before any action took place. “I was shitting myself,” he says. “I took my shoes off really slowly.”

At Ajax, Benni was prolific, but kept losing his starting place after leaving for international duty. It was the start of a long and toxic three-way war between Benni, Bafana and whichever club was employing him.

His first of several retirements came after Bafana coach Trott Moloto insisting on calling him up for a friendly against Saudi Arabia in 2002, despite his Spanish side Celta Vigo needing him for a Uefa Cup quarterfinal on the Thursday before the Saturday international. The opponents were Saudi Arabia and the venue was Newlands, with all his family and friends in attendance. Moloto threw him on for the last five minutes.

“After that I said to myself, I’m finished with this shit. If you take the mickey like that, I can go one higher. So I retired. I thought I could concentrate on my club game, but because of that call-up they crucified me at Celta.”

“For a whole season, I only trained. Every weekend was free. And I met this young Spanish girl (Maria) and I took her here, there and everywhere. We’d go to London, to Milan, to Paris. I was a loverman!

“At training I was on fire, just to upset the coach,” he says. “I skinned them all. On Thursdays I would shake hands with all my teammates, and I’d be like: “Good luck for Saturday!” And then off I go and say, right, where to this weekend? OK, we’ve been to Seville … hmmm … I’ve heard Oviedo is really nice, let’s go wine-tasting!” he laughs.

“My Spanish was rotten,” he says. “I had just the basics. I met Maria when she was working at the Zara store in Vigo. So I used to go and buy clothes just to have an excuse to talk to her. She could speak a little bit of English. And I’d walk out of the store and give all the clothes to the Senegalese guys who sold CDs on the street.”

His career was resurrected by a loan move to Porto, then coached by Jose Mourinho (“a remarkable man”). Benni netted with a towering header to evict Manchester United from the Champions League, then become the first South African champion of Europe. Life was increasingly sweet. That year, Benni and Maria got hitched.

“It was nice – and then the kids started coming,” he says. “Then you really find out what married life’s about. Being a dad while you’re still young. And women change: suddenly the children are the priority and you get shifted to the side. Eish. Normally you’re the boss, but now you’re almost the help. Can you get this, can you get that? I got shifted to second place, then third place. And when I moved to England to join Blackburn Rovers, that was almost the nail in the coffin. She said, no, she doesn’t want to move, Spain is her country. She’s not a good traveller.”

“So I wondered: ‘Why didn’t you think of that before you took the step of marrying a footballer?’ While I was in Spain it was all hunky dory. But when it’s time to sacrifice, to pack up and leave, can you? That’s when the shit hits the fan. And the answer was no. She used to come visit now and then with the kids, but everybody knew when that meant. If your wife is not willing to move with you, it’s over.”

“So I found myself alone in England, with all this temptation around me. And you’re like, naah, you can’t. For about one month. After two months – hell, no! Then you start to go out with teammates and things happen.

“I think Spanish footballers are more quiet-natured. When they go on trips, that’s when they get a bit of leeway. But England’s a completely different culture. I was pretty shocked that so many players are faithful to their wives, because it does get so tempting. Believe you me, it doesn’t matter what kind of guy you are – a one-woman guy, a head-in-the-clouds guy. Even Jesus would be tempted. Women put it on a plate for you, wiggle it in your face. The only solution is to never go out. Stay home with your wife and kids.

“The majority of professional footballers come from nothing, from poor backgrounds. That means not being able to get decent-looking girls, because you’re not their type. You’re a raw breed. But then suddenly you’re in the limelight, driving a nice car, wear nice clothes, the perspective changes. Now you’re that girl’s type. This is what money does to you. Women look at you differently: ‘Daaamn! Brad Pitt coming in here – check 12 o’clock!’

“And it’s just an average guy from Hanover Park or Soweto. But he’s rocking Louboutin trainers, D&G jeans, Louis V shades, Gucci jacket. So you add it all up, and he passes for a modern-day Denzel Washington. You’re in. You’re interesting to them. And this is not just a nice-looking girl. It’s one that you’d see in a magazine, and say “Oh my God!” Those types are chasing you. So if you go out, you set yourself up for some hard work.”

What about the notorious footballers’ Christmas parties? “They’re not as bad as outsiders make out, with lots of girls and craziness. It’s just that old English culture where players drink themselves into comas. To the point where you don’t know who you are, or who you’re with. You’re teammate is an alien from outer space.

“When all the foreign players came to England, the drinking culture changed. The Spanish and Italians can just have a civilised glass of wine. It was brilliant, and the English became good at it. But at Christmas parties, they still cut loose, and the next day they’re civilised again.”

Benni relished the brash, glamorous atmosphere of the English game. But after three fine seasons with Blackburn under Mark Hughes, he encountered creative differences with new coach Sam Allardyce – “a strange man” — and skedaddled to West Ham. At Upton Park, a knee injury on debut was his undoing. Unable to run, Benni went from slightly overweight to mortifyingly pudgy.

“The problem started back at Ajax, when I was skinny and they put me on a strength programme — bulking up with weights and creatine,” he says. “Your body changes overnight. You develop muscles you never imagined you had. You can even start twitching your chest muscles in the mirror. I was bench-pressing 100kg. Suddenly, if somebody takes you shoulder to shoulder, you give him a nudge and you send him flying.”

“But it doesn’t do anything for your game, except slow you down a little bit. And then you get injured and can’t train — and then you find out what creatine is really all about.”

West Ham paid out his contract and showed him the door. On his return to South Africa, Benni described Hammers executive Karren Brady as “the devil with tits” – to which she offered a memorable retort in her column in The Sun: “But Benni, I’m meant to have tits, you aren’t!”

“We’re cool now,” says Benni. “We kissed and made up. She’s a woman in football management, and there’s not a lot of women in the game over there. She’s ruthless – which she has to be. You can laugh about it when it’s somebody else in the firing line, but when it’s you, it’s not so funny anymore.”

Nowadays, Benni is fitter than he’s been since his arrival at Blackburn, regularly surviving 90 minutes in the helter-skelter of PSL action. “They run for fun, these kids! And I’m not falling too far behind. So I’m doing alright.”

Benni greets the hotel porters warmly, poses for photos, alights his Porsche Panamera and departs for training. He’s right, you know. He’s doing alright.

Saturday 5^th May 2012

Arsenal 3-3 Norwich City

Norwich City substitute Steve Morison scored a late goal to earn his side a dramatic draw in a thrilling Barclays Premier League match at Arsenal.

Arsenal led after 65 seconds when Yossi Benayoun curled in a shot from the edge of the area, but Norwich responded well with Wes Hoolahan equalising from close-range and Grant Holt racing through on goal to put them 2-1 in front.

Both sides had chances to add to the scoreline in a frantic second half before Robin van Persie took his tally to 30 goals this League season, volleying in a pinpoint cross from Alex Song and then sidefooting a second.

However, Morison came off the bench to fire a low shot into the far corner and Norwich City goalkeeper John Ruddy pulled off some desperate late saves to secure a point for the Canaries.

Sunday 6^th May 2012

Newcastle United 0-2 Manchester City

Manchester City moved a step closer to winning their first Barclays Premier League title after Yaya Toure’s brace earned them victory over Newcastle United at the Sports Direct Arena.

City went closest to scoring during an entertaining first half as David Silva and Sergio Aguero forced fine saves from Tim Krul and then Davide Santon kicked off the line from Gareth Barry.

City continued to press and Toure eventually broke the deadlock, playing a smart one-two with Aguero and curling superbly into Krul’s bottom left-hand corner.

Aguero shot wide from eight yards moments later and Toure headed another fine chance off target, but he slipped past Krul late on after a quick counter-attack to wrap up the points.

City now face Queens Park Rangers at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday 13th May knowing that victory will all-but guarantee them winning the League.

Manchester United 2-0 Swansea City

Manchester United kept up the pressure on Manchester City at the top of the Barclays Premier League courtesy of an impressive victory against Swansea City at Old Trafford.

United took the lead just before the half-hour mark when Antonio Valencia pulled the ball back from the right and Michael Carrick’s cross-shot was deflected in by Paul Scholes.

It was 2-0 before half-time as Ashley Young curled into the bottom corner, and United kept the visitors at bay during the second half as David de Gea saved well from Danny Graham.

United now face Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Sunday 13th May with a chance of winning their 13th Premier League title.

Queens Park Rangers 1-0 Stoke City

Djibril Cisse stepped off the bench to earn Queens Park Rangers a crucial victory against Stoke in their battle to stay in the Barclays Premier League.

Cisse tapped in at the back post in the 89th minute after Anton Ferdinand glanced on an Adel Taarabt corner as Mark Hughes’ side moved two points clear of the relegation zone in dramatic circumstances.

Stoke striker Cameron Jerome somehow volleyed wide from six yards early on and Peter Crouch hooked off target in the closing stages as the Potters were denied a point their performance deserved.

Aston Villa 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur

Aston Villa earned the point they needed to all-but ensure Barclays Premier League football for next season as they held Spurs at Villa Park.

Villa took the lead completely against the run of play in the first half, Ciaran Clark’s 30-yard drive taking a deflection off William Gallas and flying into the corner of Brad Friedel’s net.

Spurs wasted several chances, with Shay Given saving brilliantly from Gareth Bale and Rafael van der Vaart volleying wide, before Danny Rose was sent off in the second half.

The visitors levelled when Sandro was felled by Richard Dunne in the Villa box and Emmanuel Adebayor rolled in from the penalty spot, and neither side was able to conjure up a winner.

Bolton Wanderers 2-2 West Bromwich Albion

West Bromwich Albion hit back with two goals in the closing stages to leave Bolton Wanderers in real trouble at the foot of the table.

Bolton went ahead when Mark Davies was brought down in the box and Martin Petrov fired in from the spot, and they doubled their lead after the break when Liam Ridgewell cleared Petrov’s cross against Billy Jones, the ball flying in for an own goal.

But West Brom hit back when captain Chris Brunt finished neatly inside the area and then, in the last minute, James Morrison turned in Simon Cox’s cross to earn a point for the Baggies.

Fulham 2-1 Sunderland

Fulham ended their home campaign with a typically assured performance as they saw off the challenge of Sunderland at Craven Cottage.

US midfielder Clint Dempsey curled the Cottagers ahead with a superb 25-yard free-kick, though Sunderland levelled with a rare attack when Phil Bardsley rifled in after Dong-Won Ji’s lay-off.

Fulham regained the lead when Moussa Dembele’s deflected shot flew in before the break, and though Fraizer Campbell missed a fine chance to level for the Black Cats late on, Fulham secured the three points to move up to eighth.

Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-0 Everton

Already-relegated Wolves ended their home campaign with a hard-fought point against Everton in the sunshine at Molineux.

In-form striker Nikica Jelavic had a goal ruled out for offside for the Toffees in the first half, and he dragged another effort off target after the break.

Wolves created a couple of decent openings, but Stephen Hunt and Steven Fletcher both missed the target and David Edwards missed with a header, too.

Phew. What a weekend. Let’s start with the title race in the Premiership.

Following their victory over local rivals Manchester United, Manchester City started the weekend on top by 0 points and 8 ahead on goal differance. Their game, which started befor Man U’s, was a tough test against Champion League-chasing Newcastle United, whose strike force of Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse is practically unmatchable.

Despite all this, City came away 2-0 winners thanks to a brace from Yaya Toure. It is performances like this, when up against top teams, that win you trophies, and the fact City did it twice within 6 days is my reasoning for the to win the title.

Manchester United, however, faced the task of beating Welsh Wonders Swansea City, who have built up an unrecognized performance this season. Man Utd won 2-0, thanks to vetran Paul Scholes and Tom Daley’s right-hand-man Ashley Young, but only matching City’s result means a large swing in goal differance or a Citizens slip-up mean the Red Devils can win the title, which’ll never happen.

Champions League wise, Arsenal’s 3-3 draw with Norwich City means, following Newcastle’s defeat, the mighty Tottenham Hotspur steam into third place and claim Champions League football next season. Of course, that didn’t happen, as a less-than-resounding 1-1 draw with Aston Villa meant we didn’t overcome our arch rivals/neighbours.

In the battle for relegation, in addition the the aforementioned Villa result, Queen’s Park Ranger’s goal by Djeibril Cisse (No, not the same player as the Newcastle striker) means they earned a crucial 1-0 victory over Stoke, so I think they will stay up. Already-relegated Wolverhampton Wanderers drew 0-0 with Everton, Bolton Wanderers drew 2-2 with West Bromwich Albion, whilst Blackbrn Rovers and Wigan Athletic play tomorrow. I think Wolves,Balckburn and Bolton will go down, as QPR’s victory and Wigan’s recent form can save them.

Meanwhile, it was the last day in both League One and League Two. Sheffield Wednesday clinched tje runner-up promotion spot in League One behind Charlton Athletic, and beating Steel City rivals Sheffield United, who will play surprise packages Stevenage in the play-offs, whilst the over match will be Huddersfield Town v. Milton Keynes Dons. I think the Blades will beat Stevenage, Huddersfield will beat the Dons and the final will go in Huddersfield’s favour.

The four relegation spots – occupied by Rochdale, Exeter City, Chesterfield and Wycombe Wanderers – had already been decided.

In League Two, following a last day battle for third automatic promotion spot behind champions Swindon Town and Shrewsbury Town, Crawley Town were promoted by beating Accrington Stanley (Who are they? Exactly!) 1-0, Southend United beat Macclesfield Town 2-0 but lost out by a point, and Torquay United put on a horror show, losing 3-2 to Hereford United (more on that later.)

Southend finished 4th, so they will face 7th-placed Crewe Alexandra, and 5th-placed Torquay United play 6th-placed Cheltenham Town. I think Southend will go up, beating Torquay in the final.

Hereford’s victory over Torquay sadly wasn’t enough to save them relegation out of the Football League, as the only team they could catch- Barnet- beat Burton Albion 2-1. The other team to go down were Macclesfield, who had been confirmed earlier.

My ‘Football Quote of the week’ goes to Roberto Mancini, Manchester City manager, who said this about the title race following the match:

It is not over.

Unless you lose to Q.P.R., it is.

Fully aware or wilfully blind to the situation he’s led Blackburn into?

Let’s liken lofty Mr Murdock’s situation to Steve Kean’s: if you will for a moment allow yourself to imagine that an equally certified, competent and capable committee are to put judgement on Kean regarding whether he is a fit and proper person to manage Blackburn Rovers Football Club. Is he fully aware of his pathetically poor performance’s as manager, the sorry state of affairs at the club and the desperately downbeat fan’s views about him, or is he wishfully and wickedly wilfully blind to it all?

The case for fully aware

Fan protests of ‘Kean out’ have been a more frequent fixture at Ewood Park during the course of the current campaign than Rovers picking up points, playing well or seeing a sell out stadium. Fans have carried out ‘human banner’ protests outside the ground before games, organised methodical, miasmic marches and even gone to the lengths of procuring a plane to wing, whizz and whoosh over the ground during a game with a ‘Kean out’ banner trailing in its windy wake.

Lets add the ‘Kean out’ chants, often overpowering commentators during live games, the suggestion that his biggest supporter, the media, has now started to turn on him and the necessity to have his own burley bodyguard to personally protect him from devastated, disgruntled fans into the mix. Surely he must be aware of the backlash aimed at him? Indeed, commenting on the appointment of his bodyguard – a Kevin Costner to his Whitney Houston – Kean said: “I was advised that it would be in my interest to have somebody with me at all times.”

Then there are his tactics and the attitude of his players– who simply don’t look like they want to play for him – to be questioned. In a recent defeat to Spurs, Blackburn failed to take a single shot at goal, causing critics to comment that they had thrown in the towel on their scrap for survival.

The Daily Mirror stated, “For a side supposedly battling against relegation, Rovers were an embarrassment. And the news that filtered through afterwards – that defender Gael Givet had swapped shirts with Emmanuel Adebayor at HALF-TIME – was simply remarkable.”

Surely Kean is fully aware that he is out of his depth, unqualified and not wanted – results and league table positions do not lie. Any honourable man would have recognised his faults by now and stepped aside so someone more suitably qualified and experienced could take the club forward. Not Steve Kean though – he seems to prefer to put his own personal career interests ahead of the well being of the club that so many people love.

The case for wilfully blind

The Guardian’s, The Sport Blog, recently stated: “Should Rovers go down Kean will be a strong candidate for fibber of the season, what with attempting to talk his way out of a drink-driving charge and explain away all the various unscheduled absences of Blackburn players that have bedevilled their attempts to climb away from trouble.”

Kean needs a bodyguard to protect him from angry fans

Indeed, ‘Mr Positive’, does seem to – almost at default – sadly spin everything into something it’s not. Adding fuel to the fire regarding the bodyguard news, Kean further said: “It is a bit strange having him around, but there are some good things too. He is bloody interesting to talk to, for a start. I also think most of the Blackburn fans are behind me.”

Kean in recent weeks has also denied reports of training ground bust ups with players and attacks on him by fans. Kean can often be said to be living in a dream land, disconnected from every sane human beings view of the same events. It is therefore difficult to respect his opinion, take it as what he truly believes or even listen anymore.

With two matches left to play and having lost seven of his last eight games, Kean may have already relegated Blackburn before they play their next game against Wigan, this Monday night. Despite this, Kean still believes they can survive – and push for Europe in future seasons!

There are so many examples of Kean’s behaviour that suggest he is happy to be wilfully blind to what is going on. His delusions, until recently, have also been stupidly supported by some sections of the press, many of whom have had the audacity to strangely suggest he is a commonsense candidate for manager of the season. Maybe they are just as wilfully blind as Kean himself.

The judgement

If you are someone who refuses to recognise when things go wrong, unable or unwilling to investigate why and analyse these situations, you will never be someone who learns, develops and puts the wrongs right.

If I was not good at my own job – despite training, support and help – then I would stand down and let someone who is, take over. I would do this as it is the best decision for the stakeholders of the organisation I work for.

Whether Steve Kean is fully aware of his situation or whether he chooses to be wilfully blind to it, there is no questioning the judgment, much like the government committees judgement on Murdock, has to be that Kean is not a fit and proper person to be managing Blackburn Rovers Football Club.

The MP, Graham Jones, even brought the topic of Kean and Blackburn Rovers situation into UK Parliament in February 2012. However, unfortunately for Rovers fans, the equivalent of that government committee, Blackburn’s owners, the Venky’s, seem to care about the wellbeing of the club just as little as Kean does.

It used to be that reaching Wembley was the prize – then additional games like Play-Off Finals, ZDS Cup, Auto Windscreens and its varying names meant that the national stadium became an ambition, not a realistic goal for all clubs. I’m trying to work out how many of the clubs in the top two divisions have not played at Wembley in the last 25 years. (QPR? I think they last went there in 1986, but heaven knows if I’m wrong). That’s not special any more.

Then there is the now default position that the Semi-Finals are played at Wembley, even if that means traipsing Liverpool and Everton down to London, when there’s a perfectly good 75,000 seater stadium 25 miles down the road that could act as a neutral venue. Similarly this year Spurs and Chelsea could have met at the Emirates. But due to debt-financing rather than tradition, the Semis must be played there meaning progress in the FA Cup, and getting to Wembley is winning a 6th Round tie, not the Semi-Final. Blame Spurs v Arsenal 1991 for that.

Then there was the abandonment of multi-replays. Nothing made the FA Cup more special than those second and third replays. There are great memories I have of a second replay against Manchester City in 1990, when I went to Uni on the Sunday (having seen the Windys on a Saturday in Nottingham and returned to London), attended a tutorial on the Monday, hopped on a train at Lime Street at 3:45 that afternoon, got to the game just in time for kick-off and we won 3-1. Those days replays took place within days of the original tie. The day when they decided that penalties would replace an ultimate winner was a huge disappointment.

After that there was the Premier League. This was now the even bigger be-all-and-end-all, and what it did was remove depth in the competition. The lower end Premier League clubs were concentrating so much on survival that they played weakened teams to preserve their sub-standard players for league games to try to help survival. So those clubs would often lose to lower league teams, or not put in a show against top clubs, who in turn rested their best players and had better reserve teams than the lower Premier clubs. 1992 was a watershed, as in so many other things. It is so big now, the Cup doesn’t really matter.

As the lower quality teams were put out, so supporters started to desert the cup in droves. In 1995 I saw the Windys knock out Arsenal and Chelsea in successive rounds – we weren’t all that, and they played full strength teams and still lost. If we played them now, especially at their place, they would trot out 11 international reserves and win 3 or 4 nil and so why bother. When the Windys had a 5th round tie at home to Bolton this year, I had no intention of going. Why bother – Bolton stuck out a few fringe players, we were rubbish, and a predictable dull 2-0 defeat ensued to a pathetic crowd. 8 years previous, we had a bigger crowd for a home tie against Burnley at the same stage. A 5th Round tie in 1998 at home would have been a big crowd. I remember Southampton away in 2003. Awful crowd despite us packing the away end. It wasn’t a big deal to the home side – even though that season they got to the Final.

Manchester United’s withdrawal to attend the World Club Championship is seen as one of the biggest nails in the coffin. I’m not sure it is. United were never keen on it, and after that made big strides to win the competition in subsequent years. Their interest seems to have waned since their last win in 2004 (beating who – more of that in a minute). That the FA allowed their crown jewel to be placed behind some international shin-dig is seen as a dereliction of duty. It’s a minor piece in my eyes.

Then the Champions League, and the accessibility to the Group Stages and all that filthy lucre became the be-all-and-end-all. In my opinion, and I know a lot agree, the winners of the FA Cup should be the 4th entrant into the Champions League rather than 4th in the Premier League. This means Arsenal, for example, can’t keep cosily existing and finishing 3rd or 4th, getting a patsy draw against some inferior league’s team and stay in the Champions League where they will eke through the group stage and get knocked out by the first decent team they beat. Heaven forfend, but they might actually have to go out and win something for once to get in. See also Tottenham, who used a neat little draw this season avoiding big clubs until the semi-final, and until recently Liverpool. It might concentrate Arsenal’s minds a bit if their Champions League place is in jeopardy, and might encourage mid-table teams to go for it a bit more. (I know the argument that when we got to the final in 2004, we played nobody, and that if we fluked a win against United, we’d have been in the Champions League and cost us some of our coefficient as would go out early - well tough. Maybe Charlton – one of the key moaners about our “fluke”, Birmingham and Blackburn should have tried a bit harder – they were in our half of the draw as Premier League sides, and lost out. They should be kicking themselves about not reaching a Cup Final when they had the chance).

The next indignity was not making the FA Cup Final the last game of the season. The Premier League, like a prima donna, wants its own stage. It starts a week later than the rest of the serfs, and ends, this season, a couple of weeks after the Championship which has to get its play-offs out of the way before the Euros. This year, like others, it is finishing the Premier League a week after the Cup Final. Really, why do this? Do you despise tradition that much to do so. I know last year you had to get it out of the way because for some fucked up reason UEFA require two weeks clear for the stadium hosting the Champions League Final, but why this year? Clearly this is a Premier League hissy-fit thing.

The final indignity – no. not quite the final one, is the final being played on a week where there are league fixtures. It was bad enough when there were play-off games around the Final (like when the Windys played Huddersfield in 2010 when Chelsea v Portsmouth was the Final – and then another play-off game afterwards). This weekend, there are league fixtures. There is a full League One and League Two programme at 3 pm tomorrow. There is a Premier League fixture on at 12:30, and another 7 fixtures on Sunday. The Cup Final was always about THE DAY. The whole day. It was an occasion. Now it’s not even the biggest fixture this weekend. It doesn’t even get to be the occasion everything else is organised around because….

The FA Cup Final has always been, in my living memory, played at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon. Tomorrow’s FA Cup Final kicks off at 5:15 pm. Excuse my French, but what the fuck has got into them? What sort of time is this for one of the showpiece fixtures of the season? 5:15? I associate this with the dregs games in the FA Cup or Premier League – the leftover games covered by ESPN. Instead, our showpiece fixture is lobbed in, out of the way of anything important. A prelude to Britain’s Got Talent or something… I weep at the people who decide these things.

At least tomorrow the fixture looks like a decent one. Chelsea, who seem to care about this competition a lot judging by their recent record in it, are there again, and they play Liverpool, who seem to know the league game is up these days and are now chasing the trophies devalued by the big boys. They can upset the applecart in this final because they can still put in a big performance every now and then, and Chelsea do have their eye on the ultimate prize in a fortnight in Munich, but the fact it is shunted into the football sidings at 5:15 is a grave insult to all traditionalists.

When I went to the Final in 2004, when we were beaten 3-0 by a Ronaldo inspired United, it was the beginning of the end. It wasn’t a great day, it all felt forced to me, we were outclassed and didn’t really even give it a go, and the United fans left the ground with no joy in their hearts because the Cup did not make up for the fact Arsenal had won the league and they weren’t in the Champions League Final. It didn’t matter to them, they weren’t that interested in winning the Cup – it was more important to them that in beating Arsenal in the semi-final, that the Gunners hadn’t. I left Cardiff that day as depressed about football as I’ve done in years. In 2004-5 I went to a lot less away games. By 2006 I didn’t go away at all. In 2007 I missed home games. In 2011 I started to voluntarily miss games I couldn’t be arsed with. On 14 April, I attended my last home game as a season ticket holder in the seat I’ve occupied since the stadium opened. I couldn’t even be bothered to go last week for our final home game. Watching how the Cup had died, how ambition had died, and how support had changed was the beginning of the end for me. I don’t recognise the game any more – I just don’t. And the FA Cup is the perfect example of why. It just doesn’t matter any more. The prize is the same as winning the Carling Cup. Doesn’t that just say it all……..

Here’s a heads up on young strikers to watch out for this transfer window.