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.

7pm and it’s mix and match time for Saints with Azaz being the only really notable absentee. It seems similar to the Oxford game with Cam’s Bragg and Archer both starting, with Flynn Downes and Leo Scienza on the bench. Cyle is in for Ross but both Matsuki and Fellows start, with Kuryu expected to play further infield. As I get into the ground, Backburn are warming up in defensive formation and there’s five of them all in a line. They’ve rotated their team as well apparently but I’m delighted to see Alobiosu at right back, because he is shit. Nathan Redmond is playing for them…. I had completely forgotten he’d signed for them. He had some good moments in his first two years for us before seemingly losing a bit of motivation in amongst Ralph Hasenhuttl’s 4-2-2-2 press.

Away we go and it’s low block Central for Blackburn with a 5-4-30 yards-1 formation and no desire whatsoever to go and press the ball. Training game it is then. Cameron Archer is playing on the left-hand side of the attack had immediately fires a great first time ball, left footed across the 6 yard line which no one reads. Archer has the first shot in anger when a Manning free kick into the box drops down to him on the angle and his shot spins behind for a corner. In it comes from Breezy and met at the back post by the back pedalling Larin, who heads it down for Toth to make an uncomfortable looking save. Cyle’s shirt is pulled up over his face to signify the fact that he knows he should’ve scored.

For all Blackburn’s lack of ambition and low block, they are not protecting the goalkeeper very much and Fellows finds Matsuki in the box and the keeper has to push away his low effort. Blackburn, do for a moment actually get out of their half with Nathan Redmond leading the charge but it doesn’t last for long and then we resume the training game. Bragg plays a short ball to Matsuki who threads a perfect ball in between right back and right centre back to send Archer sprinting towards the penalty area and his low first time cross is perfect for Larin to run into the net. Good goal, fucking easy, this lot are shit.

With low-blocking their way to a point not an option any more, Blackburn settle for low-blocking their way to a 1-0 half time deficit and that doesn’t work either. They go another 20 or so minutes but they are a danger to themselves when they’ve actually got the ball and we are counter pressing, with Archer and Charles combining to win the ball back on the left-hand side and Shea glides past a defender and gets to the line before pulling it back. It’s met by a Blackburn player who clears it straight into the path of Manning and via a deflection he runs it into the net for 2-0. So simple Manning again Ole Ole.

Half-time and Portsmouth 2 Ipswich 0 comes up on the scoreboard. I wear a surprised frown but some are cheering. It’s annoying – have a word with yourselves. Regardless of what’s going on down the road, it’s time to rest players with James Bree not appearing for the second half, and instead we have THB at right back with Nathan Wood going into the middle.

It makes no immediate difference to Saints attacking play however with Archer bundling his way down the left and then not finding anyone to pass to once he got to the by-line so he works an angle for a shot himself and sees it deflected away to THB, who goes for a goal of the season on the volley from the edge of the box but again it hits a defender and goes for a corner.

The game then dies for a bit and slows to walking pace. Blackburn break and it gives Woody a chance to show his newly improved defending as he comes sliding in to clear out any danger. After that momentary excitement, it then gets really really dull for about 20 minutes, with Blackburn happy just to get beaten by two and Saints happy to conserve energy.

It’s beginning to get mildly irritating but then THB plays a lovely ball from right back through the lines to send Larin rumbling away and the big man chops past the last defender before passing up the opportunity to have a go with his swinger of a left foot, and he lays it short for Matsuki who half slips over, regains his balance and then side foots an absolute sitter over the bar. Shite.

That’s Matsuki‘s last involvement as he’s replaced along with Bragg and Manning and we see Welington, Scienza and Flynn Downes come on to try and inject a little bit of pace into the game. It doesn’t work immediately though, and Blackburn actually string a few passes together in our half after a terrible clearance by Charles is picked up and they work the ball into the middle for a Ohashi to bring a save out of Peretz and the rebound falls to Morishita who smashes it against the bar. They’re not finished yet though and the third effort comes in but it’s a daisy cutter the Peretz can pick up easily enough.

Peretz launches the ball long at Larin, who throws the centre back out the way and brings it down before Charles puts Scienza away down the right hand side. He takes his time, gets the full-back on his heels and rolls it back on a plate for Archer to sweep it into the net. 3-0. Archer takes a well-deserved ovation as he is replaced by Jay Robinson, but there is absolutely no more incident to report before the end of the game and the 300 Blackburn fans who made the trip at short notice, can go home.

Well, that was about as comfortable as it gets as Blackburn obligingly turned up and pretty much rolled over. Saints were always going to win once the first goal went in and Blackburn didn’t change their game plan at all, keeping their back nine in place and just allowing us to have the ball. The only danger in the second half was concentration and we got drawn into just knocking the ball around at a very slow pace but once Blackburn had their one attacking sequence of the game and after that shot pinged off the crossbar, we woke up and scored a third.

We have to talk about that lot down the road, who did themselves a massive favour in their fight to stay in the division and also did us a favour by beating Ipswich. This means the gap between Saints and the automatic promotion places is now three points. Ipswich are still very much the favourites as they have a game in hand, but it will only take one more bad result for them to start seriously shitting themselves about Saints overtaking them. It was very unexpected result from Fratton Park and whilst it’s tinged with a little bit of regret because Pompey are going to stay up now, it’s is ultimately about what we do. I expect there’s a percentage of their fan base who are absolutely fuming about doing the Scummers of favour. Before the game, they would’ve been expecting us to beat Blackburn whereas I was expecting the square root of fuck all from them. Some of our fans need to have a word with them themselves whatsoever because when the stadium announcer says the Pompey are winning, you don’t cheer. Even if you think it, you don’t fucking cheer.

The game itself today was an absolute cakewalk and it’s a game that will be remembered as Cameron Archer‘s best game for Saints. There will have been plenty of rolled eyes when his name was on the team sheet, but operating down the left wing on the first half, he put over two or three really good low left footed crosses and then of course supplied the ball to allow Cyle Larin to tap in the first goal. He was also heavily involved in the second goal, which was eventually somewhat fortuitously finished by Ryan Manning and an obliging Blackburn defender, before getting his reward in the last minute as Leo set him up to sweep in the third goal.

We should’ve scored more towards the end and defensively in that second half, we did allow Blackburn to have that one little sequence but they were kept pretty much at arms length with THB looking slightly uncomfortable at right back as we gave James Bree a rest. Woody came on and competed well in the middle and it was never seriously an issue but we did slow the game down a little bit too much. but ultimately a comfortable 3-0 is just what the doctor ordered before we roll onto Swansea for another game that we have to win.

I’m loving how many players are sticking their hands up and showing what they can do, despite being in and out of the side. Shea Charles and Cam Bragg were excellent today, Flynn Downes and Caspar Jander excellent against Derby. Charles in particular this developing this ability to almost glide past players and today, one poor clearance aside, he absolutely bossed the game from the middle of the park giving a glimpse of what’s to come in his career as he develops. We need to go up this year to have a better chance of it being with us.

15 wins out of 18 with three draws, is absolutely mad. The Championship run is 12 wins out of 15 Ipswich, Millwall and Middlesbrough will be apprehensive. As I said, I think the odds are still against us especially given that we have to chase Manchester City around Wembley in the middle of it all, but you never know.

The Saints Are Coming