[Archived] News Article -> 2012/13 Pre-Season: Rovers 2 AEK Athens 1

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Blackburn Rovers	(2) 2 – 1 (0)	AEK Athens
Gomez 7, Best 29		Kourelas 76
Referee: C. Foy		Attendance: 994

The injury to Leon Best, late in the first half, cast a huge shadow over this game and, depending upon whether there are sufficient finances to find a replacement, may well cast an even bigger shadow over the coming season. In the absence of Best at both Rochdale and in the second half against AEK Athens, the Rovers attack has looked woefully inadequate.

On a sunny afternoon at Fleetwood's Highbury Stadium, the Rovers started their final friendly on home soil in fine fashion. Once again, Steve Kean juggled his resources with Grant Hanley and Gael Givet forming the centre-back partnership, while Bruno Ribeiro moved forward from full-back to occupy the right-sided midfield role. Paulo Jorge was given the nod in the centre of midfield, while Leon Best and Nuno Gomez resumed their partnership in attack that had looked so promising at Accrington a week earlier.

The Rovers impressed during the early stages with their passing, with Danny Murphy at the heart of most things. Sitting in front of the back four, Murphy looked the consummate professional, spraying the ball around to all parts of the ground and always finding time on the ball. Best and Gomez again linked up well and were able to make runs knowing that Murphy would find them. The Rovers opened the scoring within seven minutes when Marcus Olsson picked up the ball on the left and sent over a deep cross which Best headed goalwards for Gomez to nip in and glance a header past 'keeper Giannis Arabatzis.

Such was the dominance of the Rovers that they almost doubled their lead just four minutes later. Murphy's cross was headed against the bar by Gael Givet and Best was on hand to snap up the rebound and find the back of the net. Unfortunately, the celebrations were cut short as the linesman raised his flag having adjudged that the former Newcastle striker was offside.

Givet was almost responsible for handing AEK a way back into the game when his careless pass was intercepted and Thomas Tsitas was played in, but Grant Hanley was able to block the shot on goal.

A goal for AEK would have been completely against the run of play as the Rovers had dominated the opening period and it came as no surprise when the Rovers doubled their lead on 29 minutes. It was a peach of a goal with Murphy opening up the opposition with a superb pass to Best, who, in an instant, brought the ball down on his chest and slipped inside his marker before curling an exquisite shot into the far top corner. It was a goal of real quality by the new signing.

Sadly, that was to be the last meaningful contribution that Best will make to the Rovers cause for some time. As half-time beckoned, Best went down under a seemingly innocuous challenge from Yago Fernandez and the Greek defender was incensed when Chris Foy awarded a free-kick against him. Best received treatment on the pitch for some time before being stretchered off with what we now know to be a serious knee injury that is likely to keep him out of action for six months or more.

The second half saw a plethora of substitutions both at the start of the half and during the remainder of the game. As a result, the Rovers lost much of their momentum and, without Murphy pulling the strings in midfield and Gomez and Best in attack, the team struggled to make much headway against an AEK side that looked decidedly average.

Formica and Dunn did link up well, however, which resulted in the latter firing a long-range effort just over. At the other end, Jake Kean made an uncharacteristic error when he presented the ball to Panagiotis Lagos, but with an open goal beckoning he merely succeeded in lobbing the ball into the side-netting.

The visitors, who looked to be in the very early stages of their pre-season judging by their display, pulled a goal back after 76 minutes. It was a well-worked goal with several passes being made before the ball was played in between Adam Henley and Grant Hanley. Nikolaos Kourelas raced onto the ball and, as Kean came to meet him, he slipped it past the 'keeper and into the net. Worryingly for the Rovers, it was the type of goal that was conceded all too often last season with a gap between full-back and centre-back being fully exploited by the opposition.

The Rovers almost restored their two-goal lead immediately after when a free-kick from David Dunn floated narrowly wide of the post. But the Rovers hung on to notch their second pre-season victory, in what was undoubtedly their best performance thus far, but it came at a heavy cost with the long-term loss of Leon Best.

Another disappointment came in the size of the crowd, with just 994 being enticed to watch the Rovers against foreign opposition. This must surely be the lowest attendance at a Rovers first-team game in this country in modern times and again underlines the problems the club will have in trying to entice supporters back to Ewood Park.

Teams

Blackburn Rovers

Paul Robinson (Jake Kean 46); Bradley Orr (Edinho 72), Grant Hanley, Gael Givet (Scott Dann 46), Josh Morris; Bruno Ribeiro (Adam Henley 46), Danny Murphy (Jason Lowe 46), Paulo Jorge, Marcus Olsson (Fabio Nunes 72); Nuno Gomes (David Dunn 46), Leon Best (Mauro Formica 44)
Subs not used: Radosav Petrovic, David Goodwillie, Ruben Rochina
Manager: Steve Kean

AEK Athens

Giannis Arabatzis (Dimitris Konstantopoulos 56); Christos Arkoudas, Mavroudis Bougaidis (Alexandros Nikolias 84), Michail Tsamourlidis (Valentinos Vlachos 80), Panagiotis Lagos (Chronis Tomaras 66); Enias Kalogeris (Taxiarchis Fountas 46), Antonis Stavros Rikka (Xenofontas Fetsis 80), Yago Fernandez (Spyridon Matenzidis 80), Christos Papadimitriou (Dmitrios Grontis 31); Thomas Tsitas (Andreas Stamatis 31), Roger Guerreiro (Nikolaos Kourelas 59)
Subs not used: K. Kostaridis, Joseph Agyiriba, Giorgios Nikoltsis
Coach: Vangelis Vlachos


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