This was a meeting between last season’s nearly-men, if by nearly-men you mean the teams that almost got themselves relegated down into League One. The constant offloading of assets and lack of investment saw a cobbled-together Blackburn squad finish in 20th, while a series of disastrous head coach appointments almost sunk West Brom to the third tier for the first time in 35 years, and for only the third time in their history. The only way is up, right? Right???
As it turns out, yes.
West Brom had the kind of transfer window that lets the whole division know that they’re serious about pushing for promotion despite the failings of last year. Or that they’re about to implode. They shifted a lot of the dead wood, many of them on ridiculous money for little-to-no output, and went on a Europe-wide shopping spree to refresh their squad with young up-and-coming talent from across the continent. Bringing in a large quantity of unproven young players, particularly from outside of England, can go one of two ways. They either hit the ground running and transform your fortunes for a quarter of the price that you’d have paid for the same quality of player already established in the EFL, or they can’t get up to speed with the Championship and results suffer from the absence of experience. Fortunately for the Baggies, it seems to be going the way of option one. James Morrison was given the job full-time after his heroic effort to keep the club in the division last year, and the club have been vindicated in backing him so far this season. We’re yet to see how Morrison’s young squad will cope with the rigorous late-season Championshoo schedule, but all signs point towards a play-off push for the Baggies. They’d have taken that when they were staring down the barrel of relegation a few months ago.
Blackburn had the kind of transfer window that lets the whole division know that they haven’t learned a single lesson from their near-miss last time out. With next to nothing invested in an already threadbare squad, there was nowhere left for Blackburn to turn, and relegation was inevitable. Unless… Rovers threw up the Bat Signal and coaxed two-time West Brom gaffer and Championship legend Tony Mowbray out of retirement to take charge of the club for the second time after a five year spell that ended in 2022. That’ll do it. Despite all the off-pitch failings, Mowbray is doing what he does best. He’s focussing on developing some of the club’s academy talent, and has this frankly shambolic squad playing to their strengths, playing direct counter-attacking football and, most importantly, picking up points. Alarmingly for the nerds, the xG numbers have Blackburn as the second worst chance creators in the league, and also the second most generous defence. That should spell disaster, yet Mowbray’s boys sit comfortably up in 10th. An anomaly in the data, or will their numbers catch up with them eventually?
One key stat that sums up Blackburn’s play this year is that they sit bottom of the table for big chances missed. They might not create many, but when they do they make sure to stick them away. As much as I’ve lamented the lack of quality in this Rovers team, one area in which they do have some serious talent is up front. Andri Gudjohnsen had an okay start to life at Ewood Park, netting 7 in 25 for his new club last season as he struggled with injury and the team struggled with being rubbish at football. This year, however, it looks like Tony Mowbray has managed to unlock the young Icelandic striker’s full potential. He’s already matched last season’s total in all completions. but in 14 fewer games. A brace here against a tricky defence, despite ultimately falling to defeat, is a great sign if Rovers are going to have any hopes of promotion.
Andri Gudjohnsen’s journey to becoming a professional footballer has been nothing short of remarkable. These days it’s hard to come across a true rags to riches story with so much money in the game, but it’s nice to know that the romance still exists somewhere. Andri could’ve been anything. He could’ve followed in the footsteps of his grandfather Arnor, who played professional football as a striker, most notably for Anderlecht. Or maybe he could’ve been like his father Eidur, the former Chelsea and Barcelona striker. Perhaps he would’ve liked to have emulated his older brother Sveinn, who is a professional footballer currently plying his trade up front for Cavese in Italy. Finally, he could’ve gone down the same path as his younger brother Daniel, who plays up top for Malmo out in Sweden. Miraculously, against all the odds, Andri has gone on to play professionally as a striker. You could’ve never seen that coming. All three of the Gudjohnsen boys actually learned their trade in the Barcelona academy, a position I’m sure they all earned on merit that had nothing to do with their dad. I’m only jealous.
Andri went on to eventually break through in men’s football at Real Madrid. I’m not sure which of the Classico clubs taught him how to score belters at the Hawthorns, but he was definitely listening in class that day. The first goal came from that classic trademark Mowbray press, with Kristi Montgomery chasing down Brayann Pereira until the full-back made a mistake, allowing the Blackburn player time to poke the ball into the path of Gudjohnsen. The Icelandic striker dropped in to receive the ball, and the West Brom defensive line didn’t push up to meet him, allowing him ample opportunity to take a couple of touches to set himself before lashing home a wonderful strike from range to give his side a 1-0 lead. Cry nepotism all you like, a screamer is a screamer no matter who your dad is.
His second of the afternoon was significantly less beautiful, but it was the kind of finish you love to see from your number nine. A looping Blackburn corner was swung into the area, and nobody managed to get a head on it. Probably expecting contact before it reaches him, West Brom’s Jayson Molumby sees it late and doesn’t have time to react to clear the ball as it hits him in the six yard box. All Molumby’s touch actually serves to do is to set the ball perfectly for Gudjohnsen to lash home his second into the roof of the net and double the away side’s lead. 2-0 in 12 minutes, the travelling fans were in dreamland. The problem with a great dream, of course, is that you always have to wake up in the end.
West Brom had been banging at the door from the first whistle, and had already squandered a couple of solid chances before allowing those two goals to set them back. Despite Blackburn’s lead, it was always clear that the home side were going to worm their way back into this game somehow. If you’re going to come back from two down, you need to get one back early. If you let the opposition sit on their lead and get comfortable defending what they hold for too long, you risk being shut out entirely as they adapt to the new state of play. Seven minutes after going 2-0 down, Albion had the ball in the net, and it was a quintessential “it doesn’t matter how they go in” goal. Rabby Nzingoula was fortunate to pick up the ball in the middle of the park as it was tackled into his path by a Blackburn player after some miscommunication. He drove forwards with purpose, before being dispossessed himself. Fortunately again for West Brom, this tackle also found one of their players, as the ball rolled towards Barney Stewart inside the penalty area. As if that wasn’t enough, Stewart’s effort was saved by the ‘keeper but bounced under his legs and nestled into the net. They all count, and the goal came at the perfect time to knock the wind out of Blackburn’s sails. After such an energetic start, we didn’t see any more significant action until the 72nd minute, as Rovers weathered a flurry of Albion attacks for the remainder of the first period and the start of the second without letting their lead slip.
Substitute Aune Heggebo played Molumby in on goal with a lovely weighted pass between the defence, which prompted Rovers’ captain Sean McLoughlin to feel like he had to intervene. It’s an agonising moment for the centre half as he almost times his tackle to perfection, and on first viewing I initially thought the decision was harsh. Unfortunately, it looks like he does trip his Irish compatriot, and a penalty was duly awarded. Issac Price stepped up to take the spot kick, and the Price was absolutely right on this occasion. He dinked a Panenka penalty straight down the middle as the ‘keeper helplessly flung himself to his left-hand side. They look great when they come off, and you have to respect the balls on the young man to pull that out late in the game when his side are still 2-1 down and had been frustratingly chasing an equaliser for over an hour. He’s a favourite amongst the Albion faithful, but a miss there would’ve tested their resolve. That left 20 minutes for either side to find a winner but, on the balance of play, it was only ever going to be the home team.
It looked as if it may never come, and it took until the 89th minute, but finally they made the breakthrough. The winning goal is either one of the most genius pieces of forward play I’ve seen in the EFL for some time, or a gigantic slice of luck. I’m an optimist, and I choose to believe he meant it, but I can definitely see the argument that he didn’t. Mostly because it’s really obvious that he didn’t. Let me dream, okay!? Anyway, your if you haven’t seen it then you’re probably wondering what I’m talking about.
With both teams packed into the Blackburn box, it was always going to take something pretty special to give West Brom the lead. Molumby was involved once more, cutting inside from the right wing and digging out a dangerous cross to the back post with his left peg. Aune Heggebo managed to wriggle free of his markers and get his head on the ball just a few yards from goal. From here, one of two things happens. Either, in an almost magical feat of centre forward play and spatial awareness under pressure, Heggebo heads a deft ball into the path of his onrushing teammate Felix Horn Myhre who bundles it over the line from a yard out OR Heggebo tries to head the ball inside the far post but doesn’t quite get it right and Horn Myhre gambles on it and manages to divert the wayward effort into the goal. Whatever the truth, none of that really matters. Albion got the goal they deserved and broke Blackburn hearts in the process to earn themselves an invaluable three points at this early stage of the season. If any lessons are to be learned here by either side, it’s to not be so wasteful with your finishing. There were 35 shots between the two sides, 6 of which were on target, and 5 of those went in. If only you could hit the target more often, maybe you wouldn’t have to be scrabbling around and firing desperate crosses into the box in the final minutes to try and rescue a result. But what do I know?