King Of Fortress Ewood

[Alan75]

Rovers 3 Middlesborough 2

Craig Bellamy epitomises the Rovers’ motto “Arte et labore” ("by skill and labour"). His constant running off the ball and unselfish work rate, together with a lethal finish in front of goal has paid dividends and given Rovers a new dimension this season.

Against Middlesborough yesterday, he increased his premiership goal tally to 11 goals, with two of the sweetest strikes to have been seen at Ewood Park since the championship glory days, when Alan Shearer was the darling of the Blackburn End.

Bellamy opened the scoring on 11 minutes with a pin point left-foot curling shot thorough the Boro defence to beat the outstretched arm of Mark Schwarzer at the far post. However the Welsh striker topped his first strike with his second and winning goal in the 68th minute. Collecting a neat through pass from Pedersen, Bellamy cut in from the right hand side to strike a powerful tight angled shot passed the helpless Schwarzer in the Boro goalmouth.

In between Bellamy’s goals, Boro had managed to equalise twice, firstly through Viduca, who capitalised on a poor throw in by Lucas Neill, leaving Viduca to beat Khizanishvili and fire a right-shot past Friedel's near post in the 16th minute.

Within 10 minutes of Viduca’s strike Rovers were back in the lead, when Pedersen curled a free-kick from the right through a packed penalty box to the far post past Schwarzer.

With Rovers in total command the game change in Boro’s favour in the 54th minute with another inconsistent refereeing decision, when Robbie Savage was sent off for a second yellow card offence, attributed to a dubious hand ball. With Rovers down to 10 men, Rochemback equalised for Boro firing in a low effort from 16 yards on the hour mark.

However the never say die attitude of Rovers paid off within 10 minutes, when Rovers’ Norwegian midfielder Pedersen flick on pass to the right hand side, allowed Bellamy to cut in and fire home his second and Rovers winner to keep them in touch with the chasing pack for European Qualification.

Exciting times are back at Rovers and who wouldn’t bet on Rovers qualifying for Europe whilst Bellamy the Prince of Wales is being crowned the new King of Fortress Ewood, in recognition of his skill and labour.