Damp Squib December, Hang over January - What's the Forward Forecast for Blackburn Rovers?

December, the period when traditionally football gets just that little bit hectic for teams.  Games galore and not much time to think about things in-between.  Blackburn entered this period off the back of a 5 game unbeaten run interspersed with the arrival of a new manager.  Sitting in 14th, 7 points off the top 6 and more importantly, a reasonable 6 points away from the bottom 3.  You'd have been forgiven for thinking that there was reason for some optimism going into December, the fixtures looked winnable (in the main) and the team seemed to be gaining confidence.  However, after a bright start, it all started to turn just a little bit sour.

Damp Squib December

A run of fixtures against Bristol City (A), Rotherham (H), Nottingham Forest (H), Reading (A), Middlesbrough (H) and Bolton (A) started reasonably well with a solid if unspectacular win against Bristol City, aided in part by the sending off of Nathan Baker on City's side.  Hanley weighed in with a goal and since Rhodes had been subbed off a 1st goal of the season by Marshall from the penalty spot was enough to bring home 3 points for Rovers.  Marshall has, by the early standards he set in his Blackburn career, been very much off the boil this season and needs to weigh in with far more goals than he is doing so this goal should have been a welcome relief to him and perhaps a catalyst to go out and score more but in the games that then followed the whole team as well as him became somewhat of a damp squib.

Lancashire's weather in December could almost be used as a metaphor for Rover's performances and results in this period: miserable, damp and turgid.

Whilst a win against Rotherham followed the 3 points against City, the performance left much to be desired and the win came courtesy of an own goal by Hyam, in fact Marshall's goal against City was to be the last goal scored by any Rovers' players to date.  However, the team had somehow managed to drag themselves up to 12th and 2 points off the top 6.  Many say it's the sign of a good team that can win whilst playing badly but the games that followed that certainly didn't give any credence to that for Rovers.

A dour 0-0 against Forest at Ewood was followed by a 1-0 defeat to Reading under their new manager.  It didn't bode well going into a Boxing day game against high flying Boro, whose excellent defence has conceded just 12 goals this season and sees them top of the table.  The heavens opened, rivers raged and Ewood's pitch got waterlogged - game off then, as much for the safety of others as anything else.

So it was off to Bolton, a team in dire straights right now, on the brink and with just one win all season. Whilst our record at their ground was dreadful, it was reasonable to think we could go and put in a performance and come away with 3 points. Surely a game off would be helpful?  Not so, our performance, like the weather got worse and we deservedly lost 1-0.  5 games in December, 1 goal from open play and 4 games where not one of our players could hit the back of the net for themselves.

Hangover January

Champagne corks popped and New Years Resolutions aplenty, time to start afresh - new beginnings?  Not so for Rovers, who went into January with a game against Cardiff.  Another poor performance followed and another 1-0 defeat.  A hangover from our performances in December.  As if to mock us, the FA Cup draw had paired us with another team from South Wales.  A chance to try and re-find the goalscoring habit or a banana skin?  That will have to wait for another time as the weather once again intervened and unfortunately for the many bedraggled Rovers fans who'd made their way down got called off an hour before kick-off.

Forward Forecast

The rest of January should give the manager a chance to bring in one or two reinforcements (one already in is Bennett who has experience at a higher level, in the Championship and has played under the manager, Lambert before) and hopefully get the team back on the scoring and winning trail.  There are no easy fixtures but those for the rest of the month look winnable, whilst February's look much tougher on paper.  However, with 3 potential home games (Newport FA Cup result pending) we need to be looking at this month as one to be picking up points in.  Now is a good time to bed in any new players ahead of games in February against the likes of Boro, Hull, Ipswich and Derby all sitting in the top 6 of the league currently.

Consistency is something we have lacked for a long time - stringing together a few wins on the trot is something we should be aiming for.  If we can get the right players in, particularly to help up front with goalscoring we have the capability of picking up points, more points than we have done so far.  Expectations for the season as a whole have to be tempered but given a bit of time and the right personnel, the sun may start to poke out of the clouds.  It just won't be this season.