Old Blackburnian's View - Pt 32 - Draw, Draw, Quick, Quick, Draw

[Herbie6590]

This week's slightly extended "Accrington Observer" column...

Draw, Draw, Quick, Quick, Draw 

"Money can't buy me love..." as a popular beat combo once proclaimed but there are those who suggest it can buy promotion. Rovers opponents last Wednesday, Stoke City, are owned by the Coates family, who also own Bet365. Peter Coates is in many respects, Stoke City’s equivalent of Jack Walker and has backed the club substantially at various points over the last thirty years. With the club having largely squandered their parachute payments and now falling under the auspices of FFP, the wealth of the Coates family has not insulated Stoke from their on-field problems.

Bet365's CEO is Denise Coates, daughter of Peter and has a net worth apparently in excess of £10bn, earning £323m in 2018 alone, making her the highest paid executive of any UK company. Gambling only pays when you're winning...or when you're the bookmaker.

I’ll nail my colours to the mast early on here. I’m not massively keen on the normalisation of gambling in football. I believe we will look back at some point in the near future with incredulity at the proliferation of gambling adverts in a similar way that 1980’s F1 cars festooned with tobacco ads look so incongruous to us now. But that said, the Coates family have been model owners and unlike some owners, pay their taxes.

I’m equally sure the Coates family would willingly have parted with a few bob more to persuade the referee to blow up early last week had they been able. On a cold evening that demanded some spicy fare to warm the heart of your cockle, both sides conspired to offer up the footballing equivalent of a limp, service station salad that has sat on a plate next to the oven for a week.

Armstrong once more started brightly and Rovers had the ball in the net when Joe Rothwell pounced on a Butland spill from an Armstrong shot, but Rothwell was clearly offside. Stoke were less than wholeheartedly adventurous but when they did attack, they looked dangerous. Had they truly gone for the win, Stoke might just have secured a couple more points towards their race for safety. Gallagher had a one on one but was foiled by Butland, Armstrong cut in and tried his luck but the shot was easily smothered by Butland once more and that was about it. It’s entirely possible that had a coronavirus scare caused it to be played behind closed doors, few would have quibbled come 10pm, such was the dearth of a spectacle.

Off the back of the draw at Brentford, hopes were high that the two subsequent home games would provide the fillip for a play-off push. Swansea at Ewood in the second of the back to back fixtures offered a different sort of challenge to the relegation-threatened Potters. One of those peer-group sides that Rovers have to overcome if top six is even remotely to be a prospect, Swansea clearly had a game plan that involved slowing down proceedings and frustrating their opponents – a Lewis Travis tribute some would argue. 

A reorganised defence seemed to have removed the prospect of Nyambe attacking down the right but the opening goal came from just this source with a delicious, curling cross worthy of Trent Alexander-Arnold, finding Sam Gallagher – in a central role note – able to flick it home from close range. The first assist of the season from either full back. Danny Graham on the bench doubtless immediately posting congratulations to Gallagher via the medium of his Instagram account.

Rovers settled down and for all the world looked like they would reach half-time a goal to the good. Not so fast, spiky Liverpool loanee Rhian Brewster showed his class taking a pass on the turn and firing a shot hard and low into the bottom corner beyond Walton. All square and a growing sense of frustration at the lapse.

Soon after the restart, Tosin Adarabioyo highlighted perhaps his main weakness; namely dealing with tricky forwards with fast feet in the box. Not for the first time this season, it cost a penalty when Jordan Garrick was fouled in the area and astonishingly, Rovers were now behind. Swansea managing two goals from two shots on target, efficient certainly. What really stuck in the craw was the fact that Garrick could easily have seen red for a late and high challenge on Walton in the first half. 

The game then followed what seemed to be an inevitable script of Rovers battling but struggling to gain a foothold in a brave defeat. Tony Mowbray went full “Football Manager”, throwing on Graham and Brereton to partner Armstrong and Gallagher in what initially looked like a throwback 4-2-4 from the 1960’s. This seemed to unsettle Rovers more than Swansea though, as Gallagher is still nowhere near as effective out wide and Armstrong is on a hot streak playing through the middle. That it worked despite this probably explains why Mowbray sits in the dugout whilst I’m typing this column!  

Brereton let us say “won” a penalty following a direct run into the box, which cleverly cut across a Swansea defender; Brereton’s left leg sprung out, made contact, down he went. Danny Graham took the kick rather than Armstrong, but Gareth Southgate’s Godson in the Swansea goal saved it. Graham also managed to hit the post, it all pointed to “one of those afternoons”. 

Deep in injury time, a tired Bennett cross ended at the feet of Adarabioyo and the big man spotted Johnson just outside the box with a neat, stabbed pass. Johnson looked up took aim and quite brilliantly found just the right deflection off the head of Swansea’s Kabango, totally wrong-footing Woodman. All square, and in fairness the least Rovers deserved on the balance of play over the ninety minutes.

Three points from nine has to be considered to be a disappointing return; especially from two-nil up at Brentford with two home games to follow. But astonishingly, the gap to the play-offs at 5pm on Saturday night was just three tantalising points. Ten games left, but Rovers really need to string wins together now, not draws if the season is to have a chance to end gloriously. 

Frankly, still to be in the conversation at this point with the injuries that have blighted the squad is testimony to the team spirit and determination. There can be no doubt though, that a lack of guile or unpredictability has made it so much more difficult to unpick packed and disciplined defences and has cost points. Dack might just have been able to offer something different, or Holtby, once the promise of Harry Chapman would have excited the home crowd, but the reality is, we will never know.

Our next opponents have of course recently changed their name and so it's Wayne Rooney’s Derby County lining up on Sunday. Rooney's salary being largely picked up by a betting company, this time it's the Gibraltar-based 32Red, who also sponsor four other league sides including Preston North End.  WRDC have just won their first game in five and probably still believe that they could yet close the eight-point gap to sixth with a run of wins. All things are possible in this crazy division, would you bet against it ? There's plenty willing to take your money either way.