That’s what it feels like to leave Ewood after a win then? It’s been a while and frankly looking around the ground at full-time, I wasn’t the only one wearing a bemused expression.
For large parts of the game, Rovers were being carved open at will by a nimble, athletic and pacy Southampton attack. They clearly worked out quite quickly that with wing backs operating in Rovers defence, there was plenty of space to be exploited in the corners and on another day, they could easily have had a substantial lead before half time.
The concerns on the field were echoed increasingly in the stands, the jitters in the Rovers penalty area mirrored amongst the fans. Reaching the interval only a goal in arrears was something of a relief. Adam Armstrong in particular was a thorn in the side.
The opening of the second half seemed to continue the pattern. Saints moved the ball wide and looked for a pacy runner through the middle. Twice Armstrong had the chance score, twice he spurned those chances, thanks largely to the efforts of Rovers keeper Toth who covered himself in glory here more than once. Perhaps Adam still has a soft spot for Rovers after all?
The frustration and discontent manifested itself in some intriguing crowd chants. First the visitors with “How sh*t must you be we’re winning away…” replied to by the Blackburn End with “You’re nothing special…we lose every week…”
This evolved into pointed jibes at the seemingly hapless Ismaël as he made his now customary Football Manager style panic triple substitution.
“Sacked in the morning…you’re getting sacked in the morning”
“We want Venky’s out…”
“Stand up if you hate Venky’s…”
All of this seemed to generate some long-awaited atmosphere and one of those substitutes, Kristi Montgomery decided that he’d seize the initiative and he took the old-fashioned approach of running hard, direct at the Southampton defence and in so doing, caused some discomfort and created chances.
An out of sorts Alebiosu cut inside onto his weaker foot and looped the sort of cross that can make experienced defenders panic – not especially pacy, but curling, head height, aimed into the far corner. Ryan Hedges ducked under it, Perry McCarthy in goal was caught in two minds and Rovers were level.
At that point the game changed. Saints confidence ebbed away in the manner of the Labour vote in a Welsh by-election and now it was all Rovers.
It’s not very often these days that you can watch Rovers with little or no jeopardy, but here, in this moment, there was only ever going to be one winner.
The vital second rewarded the persistence of Gudjohnsen and Rovers never looked in danger of letting this slip as Saints slumped. Their woe was exacerbated as Wellington met his Waterloo being shown a red card in stoppage time - given the boot you might say - and the final whistle brought relief and joy to Ewood.
Napoleon allegedly said he’d rather have a lucky general than a good one. Here, in these circumstances, was Rovers ultimate success down to luck or ability? The answer will determine the ultimate outcome of the season.
