please log in to view this image Round 33 please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Blackburn Rovers 1 - 2 Norwich City FT 90+5' HT 1 - 0Attendance:13,530 Date: Tuesday 24th February 2015 Venue: Ewood Park Kick-Off: 07:45PM KIO's not606 Match Preview The Canaries will look to continue their renewed charge for the automatic promotion spots in the Sky Bet Championship when they travel to face Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park tomorrow. CIty go into the match in fine form having picked up 13 points from the last 15, a run that has seen them climb to fifth in the table, just four points adrift of second-placed Middlesbrough. Last time out Alex Neil's side swept aside fellow promotion rivals Watford at Vicarage Road, they cruised to a 3-0 victory courtesy of a brace from in form marksman Lewis Grabban and another wonderful strike from Cameron Jerome. City put the Hornets to the sword City boss Neil must decide whether to rotate his side with local rivals Ipswich awaiting on Sunday, but he will still be without Ryan Bennett, Elliott Bennett and Gary O'Neil due to injury. Blackburn have been inconsistent this campaign and as a result lie 10th in the table on 44 points. A play-off place however is still within reach and considering the Canaries woeful record at Ewood they must fancy their chances of upsetting the form book. Rovers were held by rock bottom Blackpool at the weekend but go into tomorrow night's game unbeaten in four matches their best run since November. Alex Neil's Match Preview City boss Alex Neil previews tomorrow's game “We’re at a stage at the moment where we’ve got 14 games left, and we need to try and win as many as we can.” “We can’t take anyone lightly, and we can’t take our feet off the gas for any game in particular. We’ve got to make sure that we’re full throttle for the full 14 games, and that starts at Blackburn.” “This is the most important game of the season. We’ve got a derby on Sunday, but unless we win this one, that becomes less important. We need to make sure that we take the performances we’ve been generating lately into this one.” Gary Bowyer's Match Preview please log in to view this image Blackburn chief Gary Bowyer Speaking on Monday afternoon, boss Gary Bowyer confirmed: "Ben Marshall is going to be in the squad as he has come through two days training so that is a real bonus to have him back. "There's also good news on Corry Evans, he's trained this morning so we are happy with that. "With Chris Taylor we'll leave it until tomorrow morning to check his toe, and David Dunn isn't going to be too far away now. "We are approaching a busy spell so we need everybody fit and well, so at this moment everybody seems to be doing alright." Current Form Blackburn Rovers: DDWWL Norwich City: WWWWD Match History Historically Blackburn have the upper hand over Norwich in competitive fixtures with 17 wins to City's 10, there have been 10 drawn games. Norwich have only ever won once at Ewood Park that was on 18th August 1993 in a Premier League encounter where they overcame Rovers by 3 goals to 2. The Canaries have been stuffed on more than one occasion in the away fixture, 5-3 in Division Two (2nd tier) on 4th September 1937, 6-0 also in Division Two (2nd tier) on 3rd December 1938 and 7-1 in the Premier League on 3rd October 1992. Norwich's best win over Blackburn was way back on 8th April 1939 just before the outbreak of WWII when they beat Rovers 4-0 at Carrow Road. Highest Blackburn Rovers Score Blackburn Rovers 7 Norwich City 1 Highest Norwich City Score Norwich City 4 Blackburn Rovers 0 Highest Aggregate (8) Blackburn Rovers 7 Norwich City 1 Blackburn Rovers 5 Norwich City 3 Club Connections Quite a few and here are some of the most notable: MARK BUNN City's current understudy to John Ruddy was signed from Rovers. ASA HARTFORD A Milk Cup winner with City, coached at Blackburn between 1991 and 1992 please log in to view this image Asa Hartford front row far right, celebrates with his City teammates at Wembley in 1985 MARTIN OLSSON Current Canaries left back was signed from Blackburn in July 2013 CRAIG BELLAMY Played for both City and Rovers HENNING BERG Former Blackburn player and manager who now scouts for Norwich MARK BOWEN City stalwart who was assistant manager at Ewood Park ANTHONY PILKINGTON City's July 2011 signing was with Rovers as a youngster TIM SHERWOOD Left Norwich in 1991 and was Kenny Dalglish's first signing for Blackburn CHRIS SUTTON Left Norwich for Blackburn for a then British record fee of £5M please log in to view this image Chris Sutton and Alan Shearer hold the Premier League trophy aloft ASHLEY WARD Joined Blackburn on Christmas Day 1998 from Barnsley for £4.5M Team Line Ups Blackburn Rovers Steele, Baptiste, Hanley (c), Kilgallon, Olsson, Cairney, Spearing, Evans, Conway, Rhodes, Gestede. Substitutes Eastwood (GK), Henley, King, Brown, Marshall, Williamson, Duffy. Norwich City please log in to view this image Substitutes Rudd (GK), Turner, Jerome, Andreu, Garrido, Josh Murphy, Tettey. ********************************************************************************Listen to full match commentary on BBC Radio Norfolk 95.1 & 104.4FM, 855Mhz and DAB Digital Radio with Chris Goreham please log in to view this image and guest match summariser Mark Rivers please log in to view this image ............and don't forget to tune into 'Canary Call' post match OTBC
Cheers guys, this was supposed to be a shortened thread because I'm so busy but once I got started I couldn't stop ! Quite pleased with it if I say so myself, composed in just 90 mins .............right, now going to settle down and watch the 'Broadchurch' finale
And if you have a glass charged, raise it - to Oli Johnson, who on this day in 2010, came on at Roots Hall as a sub and scored two late goals to propel us up league 1. The rest, of course, is history
Ah yes, do you remember the home fixture though? Electric! Oli Johnson again last minute header I think.
Oli is now playing for Guiseley AFC in the Conference North. A career that never quite took off from those glorious moments!
I just have to stay up for this one, even to just listen on the radio again. Win this one and I will start to believe a top 2 push really is on the cards
Well worth the effort if it's another 3 points in the bag, especially if Binners lose as we go 3rd or 4th depending on the winning margin Then hope Forest can do another favour the following night - which I think could quite easily happen
Game Day ! Tonight we could be two points ahead of 1p5wich ...........then again We could be four points behind them "Come On You Yellas, We Can Do This !"
That's the spirit KIO! We could go up to 4th or also down to 7th, depending on results. Everything to play for! OTBC!
The ignore function is not just for Christmas KIO, it's for life If no-one replies, they will give up sooner or later
Same for me Super. Even gave up my nightly libation, well almost, to ensure clarity of mind and a good few hours sleep before raisins at 0340 or thereabouts.
I've enjoyed this site much more since I put Warky on ignore. I still see the replies to his comments but it's a damn sight less annoying.