The Rovers Return

From the Peterborough Evening Telegraph:

By Alan Swann

League Cup (first round), September 11, 1961: POSH have only played Rovers once in the Football League Cup and that was 48 years ago. Third Division Posh went down 3-1 at the home of top-flight opposition in the first round of the 1961-62 competition.

Billy Hails opened the scoring for Posh in the 15th minute after good work by Dennis Emery, but Ian Lawther (2) and Bryan Douglas ensured there would be no shock.

Posh boss Jimmy Hagan had caused a shock with his team selection for a Monday night fixture dropping Norman Rigby and Peter McNamee after a dismal team performance in a 6-2 defeat at Bradford Park Avenue 48 hours earlier.

Posh: Ronson, Whittaker, Walker, Rayner, Ripley, Stafford, Hails, Emery, Bly. Smith, Sheavills.

Blackburn: Else, Bray, Newton, Clayton, Woods, McGrath, Isherwood, Crowe, Pickering, Douglas, Laverty.

And Posh have only played Blackburn twice in the Football League. Rovers won the Third Division title in the 1974-75 season, but Posh beat them 1-0 home and away.

Jeff Lee’s first-half penalty following a foul on David Price was enough to secure victory at Ewood Park after a Freddie Hill (right) goal won the game at London Road.

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Despite a 2-1 defeat at Anfield, Alan Shearer and Jack Walker celebrate beating Manchester United to the Premier League title.

It says that, out of all the current Premier League sides, Rovers have the best record against top four – Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool – with an average of a point a game.

The full record, from 120 games, is 29 wins, 33 draws and 58 defeats since we became founder members of the Premier League in 1992. That amounts to a total of 120 points and a win percentage of 24.2.

Burnley are the only other side ranked at a point a game, but having only played three matches I don’t think the Dingles can really count…

One thing that surprises me, and shows how short a memory people seem to have these days, is Martin’s comment, “You may be surprised to learn that the side with the best record against the big four is Blackburn Rovers.”

Not really, considering we are one of only four teams to have won the Premier League, more than a certain member of the big four have managed, and in the early days we were better than both Liverpool and Arsenal, while being about as good as Manchester United. Sadly, we can no longer make these claims, but it’s a fact that while the league was in its infancy, we were one of the big boys! Read more »

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Once again, it’s been a while. I’m just a lazy bastard. Call me Kevin Davies if you like.

Liverpool tomorrow, may as well write this one off. Anything more than a defeat is an absolute bonus when we travel to Anfield tomorrow. Especially as they’ll be looking to bounce back from that terrible defeat on Wednesday night!

I, and I advise fellow Rovers fans to do the same, will not be despairing if we come back from Merseyside following a tonking tomorrow as, following a great win against Spurs (which could well turn out to be the biggest result of our season when it is consigned to the history books) we do not need this match.

Looking to our upcoming fixtures, we are still to take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, so with these two fixtures still ahead of us and our Premiership safety still in the balance, you could be forgiven for thinking we are in for turbulent times. Read more »

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