PL25: When Blackburn upset the odds and ruined Alex Ferguson’s birthday
To celebrate 25 years of the Premier League each week in Football Fancast we’re going to be looking back at a memorable game that took place on the corresponding date. This time out we revisit a New Year’s Eve cracker that saw a relegation doomed side play the role of party poopers.
Nobody expected Blackburn Rovers to come away from Old Trafford on New Year’s Eve 2011 with all three points. Not the bookies who had them down at a mind-boggling 28-1 to achieve the feat. Not Sir Alex Ferguson who had one eye on Manchester United’s imminent away trip to Newcastle, a priority so pressing that he was content to omit a fit and firing Wayne Rooney from the squad despite the Reds being already depleted through injuries. And certainly not the general public who tuned in expecting a predictable drubbing dished out from a team one victory away from the top to a beleaguered side rock bottom of the Premier League.
Looking back though the clues were there that something memorable might just be on the cards. Each and every week the Rovers fans would sing for the dismissal of Steve Kean, a manager who was as unpopular among the Ewood Park faithful as he was ill-rated elsewhere. Yet the previous week, on Boxing Day, he had orchestrated a stellar 1-1 draw at Anfield and there were tentative signs that he was beginning to get some fight out of a side that included such obscure quiz answers as Mauro Formica, Ruben Rochina, and Radosav Petrovic. This trio accumulated 93 appearances for Blackburn during this miserable campaign. It’s fair to say this was not a vintage Rovers eleven.
Additionally United really were weakened by key absences, an injury list so severe that Ferguson had the straight choice in midfield of converting full-back Rafael Da Silva into a holding role for the day or turning to a promising academy player who was ripe for a debut. His name, if you haven’t already guessed, was Paul Pogba.
In the event, the gum-chewing veteran went with the Brazilian which reportedly peeved Pogba off no end, not that Fergie particularly cared for this game coincided with his 70th birthday and prior to kick-off the deserved acclaim flooded in. Now there was just the small matter of dispensing with a poor Blackburn side and taking the lead in a fiercely contested title race with City.
It didn’t take long for things to go awry. Dimitar Berbatov was probably not the ideal player to be marking the man-mountain Chris Samba at a corner and the Bulgarian displayed his defensive shortcomings by hauling the Rovers centre-back to the ground right in front of referee Mike Dean. Yakubu converted from the spot and it was very much game on.
Surprisingly United didn’t retaliate in the manner that we had all come accustomed to. There were dribs and drabs of attacking intent but Rovers had recently dealt with much worse at Anfield and were coping comfortably. For the remainder of the first half it was a rather insipid affair.
When Carrick, Nani and co emerged from the tunnel a full few minutes before the visitors after the break we can only imagine the settings on Ferguson’s hairdryer and sure enough a more cohesive and adventurous United resumed proceedings. A comeback seemed inevitable until Yakubu scored again, this time against the run of play, with an accurate angled drive past a stranded De Gea. The stadium deflated. This was Blackburn. This was Ferguson’s birthday. This wasn’t supposed to happen.
But then, almost immediately, the fightback was on. Berbatov took full advantage of a stray shot to head home and soon after the laid-back prowler grabbed a second benefitting from splendid work by Valencia out wide. United had scored ten in their previous two games and perhaps it was this momentum that took them forward now, pressing and pushing for a decider.
With ten minutes to go the decider duly came only to the shock of everyone concerned it took place in the opposing goalmouth. David de Gea had looked nervy throughout and his unorthodox attempt to punch away a corner only spooned the ball into the air on contact with the burly youngster Grant Hanley. The teen merely had to nod it into the unguarded net to complete a quite remarkable score-line.
“This is the sort of result that can really make a young lad’s career,” an ecstatic Kean said later, referring not only to his Scottish defender but a team tender in years. Sadly the same did not apply to the manager who lasted another nine months before the Ewood Park faithful finally got their wish.
What happened next?
United were pipped to the title in the most extraordinary of last-gasp circumstances. In the summer of introspection that followed it’s hard not to believe that this result stood out as the one that got away.
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Blackburn were ultimately relegated, a woeful late run-in revealing that the fight and spirit shown at Old Trafford was sadly an exception to the norm.
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