Newcastle United vs Blackburn Rovers F.A. Cup match banter!

January 7th, 2012 | 106 Comments |

This one sees the Magpies hosting the team who have been recently renamed, from “Blackburn Rovers” to “Troubled Blackburn Rovers” because of their trials and tribulations in the relegation zone, and also the rather unfortunate behaviour of some of their fans towards manager Steve Kean, which has almost certainly made a bad situation worse. The cups however are a different matter, with quite a few teams in the past putting poor league form behind them to excel in cup competitions. The last of course being Birmingham City, who did the “double” of winning the League Cup and getting relegated last season. Our cousins from the “Paris of the North”, Middlesbrough, being another example in 1997 when they at made the final of the FA Cup in one of their relegation seasons.

It also shouldn’t be forgotten that it was Troubled Blackburn Rovers who ditched us out of the League Cup too, a 3-4 extra time thriller back in October of last year, with Blackburn’s Gael Givet eventually sinking Toon’s League Cup dreams in the 120th minute. Also, while we may be riding high after our glorious victory over the current Premiership title holders on Wednesday, Blackburn also managed the same feat on new Years Eve. On the other hand however, we did beat Rovers 3-1 in our previous Premiership meeting at St James’ Park the month before. But anyway, I won’t go on for too long here, if you would like an extensive and rather thought provoking look forward the game, DO check out UTD111’s excellent match preview, which really is a cracker this week! (more…)