It was back in October 2025 that Saints visited Blackburn and the managers in the dugouts on that day were Will Still and Valerien Ismael. There will of course be two different managers in the dugouts today in Toda Eckert and Michael O’Neill because the two previous managers were largely shite.

Blackburn away was a bit of a turning point because I think most people realised, if they hadn’t already, that it was never going to work with Will Still. It was a game where we were winning through a goal from Leo Scienza and then he took him off because he was the one player who was playing well, and put Jack Stephens in midfield because we needed four central defenders on the pitch against Blackburn. And so it happened that we conceded an absolutely shit goal with Josh Q dummying our own keeper and then he brought on Cam Bragg with no name or number on his shirt and we managed to lose to a terrible Blackburn side. The day was finished off with Welington getting himself sent off in the last minute in a rare case of a correct decision being made by Bobby Madley and Shea Charles picking up an injury that kept him out for three months. A great day. It’s arguable that we even lost to Blackburn and that we did in fact lose to ourselves, courtesy of the Will Still effect. The main thing that I take, looking back at that game is the Will Still was making mad gambles with substitutions and moving everybody about, which is pretty much the opposite of what Tonda Eckert does. Which approach is suiting us better? Still only oversaw one more game before being shown the door.

Backburn’s win that day bought Ismael a bit more time but they were in the relegation zone on an eight game non-winning streak when he eventually got the bullet. Blackburn appointed Michael O’Neill until the end of the season, in the meantime of course and he is the very definition of pragmatic. This approach appears to be keeping Blackburn’s head above water in their quest to stay in the Championship, hopefully at the expense of Portsmouth. He was not very happy about this game being rearranged on them at very short notice, but he needs to take that up with the EFL and the FA who obviously never factored in a Championship club getting into the FA Cup semi-final. Blackburn are the unfortunate recipients of that lack of foresight, but they are undefeated in five, with their games following a similar pattern of being very low scoring. O’Neill is still the Northern Ireland manager, so hopefully he’s shaking Shea Charles’ hand at the end and congratulating him on the three points.

A player in the Blackburn ranks that we have come across in the past is Todd Cantwell, formerly of Norwich, who great things were expected of once upon a time when he was in England under 21 international. When he was younger, he was always a very easy player to wind up and he really struggled with a physical side of the game. I assume that’s not the case anymore seeing as he is 28.

We clearly should be too good for Backburn though it’s going to take some patience to break them down but once again the same rules apply – bring the energy and determination and all should work out ok. It’s time to exorcise the Ghost of Will Still… though it might be worth keeping an eye out for who the next Blackburn manager turns out to be, seeing as to how Will has been linked to that particular job.