Blackburn Rovers

Blackburn Rovers FC is a football club from the East Lancashire town of Blackburn, that was formed at a meeting at the Leger Hotel in the town on 5th November 1875, with the club played their first ever game the following month.

Rovers began life playing at the Oozehead Ground on Preston New Road before moving briefly in 1877 to Pleasington Cricket Ground and then East Lancashire Cricket Club's Alexandra Meadows.

In 1878 the club were one of the founder members of the Lancashire Football Association. The following year Rovers entered the FA Cup for the first time prior to moving to Leamington Road, a purpose built ground in 1881.

Blackburn reached the 1881-82 FA Cup final where they were defeated by Old Etonians. The team returned to the final in 1883-84, again played at The Oval, where they beat Scottish side Queen's Park 2-1 through goals from Jimmy Douglas and Jimmy Forrest.

The two sides met again in the 1884-85 final at the same venue with Rovers winning 2-0 as Forrest and James Brown netted the goals. In 1885-86 Rovers made it three consecutive wins, all under manager James Fielding, when West Bromwich Albion were defeated 2-0 in a replay at The Racecourse Ground in Derby.

Skipper Brown and Joe Sowerbutts scored the goals as Rovers were awarded a special plaque and given the unique privilege of being allowed to have their club crest on their corner flags. Between 1878 and 1889 Rovers had to content with local rivals Blackburn Olympic.

Olympic played at a ground called Hole-i'th'-Wall, after the pub adjacent to it, with the team winning the FA Cup in 1882-83 against Old Etonians, in a victory that had influence in allowing professionalism into the sport two years later. Sadly, Olympic couldn't compete with other professional clubs so they folded before the turn of the century.

Rovers became founder members of the Football League in 1888, as the success continued to flow under manager Thomas Mitchell, with Blackburn winning the FA Cup in 1899-90 as The Wednesday were hammered 6-1. William Townley bagged a hattrick with Nat Walton, Jack Southworth and Joe Lofthouse scoring the other goals.

The club moved to their new Ewood Park home on the banks of the River Darwen following the triumph. The Cup was retained in 1890-91 with a 3-1 victory against Notts County as Townley, Southworth and Geordie Dewar scoring the goals.

After a struggle of a few years, Rovers improved Ewood Park by covering the Darwen End and building the grand new Nuthall Street Stand. Rovers became considered to be one of the top sides in the country. The league title was won for a first time in 1911-12 with Robert Middleton in charge of the team.

The championship returned to Blackburn in 1913-14, before returning to action after World War One and then going on to win the FA Cup for a sixth time in 1927-28 under the tutelage of Bob Crompton as two goals from Jack Roscamp and another from Tommy McLean were enough to defeat Huddersfield Town 3-1 at Wembley.

Unfortunately, that was to be Rovers last major trophy for nearly seventy years. The team was relegated for the first time in their history in 1935-36 before they bounced back as Division Two champions in 1938-39 under a returning Crompton.

 

Rovers went back down in 1947-48, regaining their top flight status in 1957-58 with Johnny Carey in charge of the team. He was replaced by Dally Duncan who led Blackburn to the 1959-60 FA Cup final, where the side captained by Ronnie Clayton also containing Derek Dougan and Peter Dobing, lost 3-0 to Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Blackburn were relegated again in 1965-66 with Jack Marshall in charge of the side before he was replaced by Eddie Quigley in 1967. Carey returned for a second spell for the 1970-71 campaign which ended in relegation to the Third Division.

Ken Furphy was appointed as manager before Gordon Lee arrived to take Rovers to the Division Three title in 1974-75 before he was replaced by Jim Smith. Jim Iley was the next manager and then John Pickering, who was at the helm as Blackburn were relegated in 1978-79.

Howard Kendall arrived at Ewood Park as player-manager, taking the side to promotion in 1979-80 as the club gradually improved in the second tier under Bobby Saxton between 1981 and 1986 as Simon Garner became the star striker. Don Mackay became team boss and pushed the side on further.

A solitary Colin Hendry goal won Blackburn the Full Members Cup at Wembley against Charlton Athletic in 1986-87. In 1987-88 Rovers reached the play-offs, losing to Chelsea in the semi-final. The 1988-89 campaign saw another play-off defeat, this time to Crystal Palace in the final after a win against Watford.

The play-off heartache continued in 1989-90 with semi-final defeat to Swindon Town shortly before local steelworks owner and lifelong supporter Jack Walker took over the club to revive Rovers fortunes in dramatic fashion.

Kenny Dalglish was appointed as manager in October 1991 as his side containing Kevin Moran, David Speedie and Mike Newell reached the 1991-92 play-offs. Derby County were defeated before a Newell penalty was enough to defeat Leicester City and take Rovers to the top tier where they became founder members of the Premier League.

An English transfer fee of £3.5M was paid to sign Alan Shearer from Southampton after promotion was sealed prior to Ewood Park undertaking a huge redevelopment with all four sides being rebuilt, while millions of pounds was spent on new signings.

The team ended as league runners-up in 1993-94 as well as reaching the League Cup semi-final, losing out to Sheffield Wednesday. Blackburn Rovers lifted the Premier League title in 1994-95, as Shearer and Chris Sutton were too much for opposing defenders to handle.

The victorious team also contained the likes of Tim Flowers, Tim Sherwood, Hendry, Graeme Le Saux, Stuart Ripley, Jason Wilcox and Henning Berg. The side with the addition of David Batty failed to replicate the glory.

Dalglish moved upstairs to become Director of Football with his assistant Ray Harford taking the managerial reigns. Roy Hodgson took charge of the team in 1997-98 before he was replaced by Brian Kidd. Rovers were relegated in 1998-99.

Sir Jack Walker passed away shortly into the 2000-01 season. Tony Parkes, who had been caretaker manager on four separate occasions was given a chance in a permanent capacity before he was replaced by Graeme Souness.

Rovers won promotion in 2000-01 and then lifted the League Cup in 2001-02 when goals from Mat Jansen and Andy Cole saw the team beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 at the Millennium Stadium before finishing sixth in the league in 2002-03 with the aid of cash left to keep Rovers going for several seasons by Sir Jack Walker.

Rovers remained relatively secure in the Premier League and even reached the UEFA Cup for the 2006-07 season after Mark Hughes took over as manager in 2004. Sam Allardyce found himself at the helm in December 2008 after Paul Ince had a short spell.

He was taken to be doing a good job on a limited budget as the Walker money began to dry up. The club were sold to an Indian company, Venkateshwara Hatcheries Group who specialised in chicken meat production in 2010. They sacked Allardyce a month later and replaced him with first team coach Steve Kean.

Kean's was extremely unpopular as fans protested vehemently at home games and attendance figures dropped. The team were relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2011-12 season and Kean was dismissed soon into the following season.

He was replaced by Henning Berg who lasted just fifty seven days before Shebby Singh who was appointed by owners Venkys to oversee the club showed him the door. Michael Appleton took over for a spell of sixty seven days before being shown the door.

Gary Bowyer was eventually installed as permanent manager in May 2013 after two previous spells as caretaker boss. He led the side to a promising eighth place finish in his first full season at the helm, which was followed up by a ninth place.

Despite this, Paul Lambert was appointed as manager, lasting the 2015-16 season before being replaced by Owen Coyle. His team was relegated at the end of the 2016-17 campaign with Tony Mowbray coming in as the new manager.

Mowbray led Rovers to promotion in 2017-18, then securing their Championship status before an eleventh-place finish in 2019-20. Adam Armstrong and then Ben Brereton Díaz scored the goals taking Blackburn to eighth spot in 2021-22.

Mowbray was replaced by Jon Dahl Tomasson in June 2022, with the team missing out on a playoff place on goal difference. In February 2024 John Eustace replaced the Danish boss as the new head coach.

Blackburn Rovers FC will play in the EFL Championship in the 2024-25 season.

My visits

Blackburn Rovers 2 Hull City 2 (Saturday 1st February 1986) Division Two (att: 5,414)

Hull City were having a very good season in the second division and we took regular coaches to away games from Scarborough, Filey and Bridlington as well as every home match. Promotion was not out of the question.

Our bus on this occasion got to Blackburn just before two o'clock and we managed to get into a pub near the ground, which was most unusual back then in terms of being allowed and for our own safety. The Rovers fans seemed a decent bunch as I sampled Thwaites beers for the first time.

The match was a good one with Frankie Bunn and Stan McEwan striking for The Tigers and the atmosphere in the away matched it with around six or seven hundred away fans being in attendance.

Ewood Park was showing signs of age but I liked it. We were placed in the Darwen End which was a large terrace behind the goal with a roof to assist our acoustics. To our right was a large open terrace with the Riverside Stand stood behind it, but it was now closed because it was deemed unsafe in the aftermath of the Bradford Fire Disaster. 

The far Blackburn End had a plain cantilever cover over its terracing while the Nuthall Street Stand slanted away from the pitch at both ends so that the centre was furthest away. It had an open terrace paddock in front of a seated tier.

Wednesday 14th September 2011

I was planning to visit East Lancashire as I had a couple of days off work after completing my night shifts. This included going to the Accrington Stanley versus Rotherham United game the previous evening and then visiting grounds in the area the next day before moving on to Manchester.

I had tried to contact someone at the tours office at Ewood Park and see what my chance were of getting inside the stadium. I explained I would normally have paid for a tour but there was non available on the day I was there. Within a day the lady from tours, Elaine Whittington had emailed me back telling me it wasn't a problem and to let her know when I was near.

After taking a couple of buses from Padiham I found myself outside the towering stands of Ewood Park. It really had changed since my last visit! There was a wonderful statue of Sir Jack Walker behind the Blackburn End Stand with the original brickwork reading 'Rovers FC' from above the turnstiles before redevelopment.

I went into reception and before long Elaine had come to meet me. I explained where I'd been so far and explained I was careful at Turf Moor when telling the lady there that I was going to Blackburn Rovers. I needn't have worried either way. Elaine revealed herself to be a Burnley fan! She was friends with Veronica Simpson who had taken me round earlier that day.

We went out and had a look at the stadium so I could take my photos. As I mentioned, the ground had changed massively since my last visit. Indeed, all four stands were new. The first stand to be replaced at Ewood Park was the Riverside Stand with the grand old structure which was constructed in 1928 being swapped for a rather dull single tier of covered seats in 1988.

Identical two tiered seated stands, the Darwen and Blackburn End Stands behind the goals were opened in February 1994. The new Jack Walker Stand, which was a large two tiered stand, was opened in August 1994 after some houses on Nuthall Street had been demolished two years previously to allow for the large new structure.

All this work gave the ground a capacity of 31,154 seats.

We had a good chat about the game as Elaine admitted to being a self confessed football 'anorak' who also went to Accrington Stanley matches when she could. We went into the Blue Bar under the Blackburn End, which had just been named the Ronnie Clayton Stand after the former player. We chatted about the grounds of old and how atmosphere had changed with the new stereotypical modern stadia, over a coffee. 

I went on my way to catch a bus outside on Bolton Road towards Darwen. It was really nice to get pitchside at Ewood Park and see things from the inside. It also gladdened my heart as it had done at Turf Moor to see lovely people employed by the clubs who actually cared rather than turn up to do just another job.


The early pictures on this page of Ewood Park have been taken from the internet as I rarely took photos of grounds at the time of my visit.