Dear God that was a long time to be away from football, can never understand the September International break, literally a couple of weeks into a new season, but hey!
As for the TNS offices we are a little sparse as it vacation period here with Steve away and Wildheart out at our TNS USA offices, doing some work on our Baseball division. At least with all that spare time, I’ve been able to tidy up Steve’s Rothman’s Book collection, so they are chronologically ordered now!
Back to the football, Blackburn Rovers will play Wigan Athletic at Ewood Park Stadium on Saturday the 13th September; with a 3pm kick off.
Both teams are close to each other in the table, just goal difference separating them, with Wigan in 12th place & Blackburn in 14th place, both on 7 points.
Recent form has seen Wigan win their last 2 league games against Blackpool & Birmingham, so are hoping to make it 3 wins on the spin against teams beginning with ‘B’.
Blackburn, has seen their last 4 games in a win, lose sequence with wins against Blackpool & Bournemouth, interjected with defeats against Norwich and last time out against Wolves.
Referee for Saturday’s match will be Roger East, with Edward Smart and Derek Eaton as linesmen & the Fourth Official in James Adcock. Ironically enough the last time Roger officiated a game for these teams was the last time the teams met at the start of May, were Roger dished out 5 yellow cards at Ewood Park, as Blackburn beat Wigan 4-3.
Head to Head against Blackburn, including last season’s 4-3 game, has seen Blackburn win 12 games, Wigan 5 and the remaining 3 drawn. The last meeting was the said ‘Roger East’ game; earlier that season saw Wigan win 2-1 in October with Boycey getting the all important 2nd goal.
In fact Wigan have beaten Blackburn in 3 of the last 5 League games & before May’s victory, the last time Blackburn had beaten Wigan was November 2010, in the fabled Premier League.
In League games it is closer Head to Head as it’s Cup games where Blackburn have been stronger, with Blackburn wining all 4 games we’ve contested. The last being a Worthington Cup Quarter Final in December 2002, were Blackburn a then Premier League team, beat Wigan then a 3rd tier team, 2-0. Thanks once again to Cockney Latic for the Head to Head details.
During the International break, where at least some players can rest from any early season knocks or injuries, and new players from transfer deadline day could play a role in this game. Wigan picked up Andy Delort, Adam Forshaw, William Kvist and also made Emyr Huws loan move permanent. Some of these players could start for Wigan, Blackburn were less busy in the Transfer market. They only picked up Shane Duffy from Everton, though Blackburn’s main positive was probably keeping hold of Jordan Rhodes. Unfortunately, Chris Brown has had knee surgery and should return in 6 weeks after picking up a pre season injury that he never recovered from.
Looking at some bookies statistics going into this game, they indicate a 47% probability of a home win, 28% for an away win & 25% for a draw. Thanks to K%ckoff for that background, remember to always gamble your pennies responsibly.
Hoping Wigan can keep up their good form and the new players can help Wigan’s recent good run, but would be happy with a draw against a strengthening Blackburn team.
Andy
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