Can AFCB boost their promotion chances at Blackburn?

Written by billythekid

Getting Tight For Second Spot In The Table

The Cherries will be looking to continue the form they showed in the fight back at Swansea in their second game on the road with a visit to Lancashire and Ewood Park the home of Blackburn Rovers on Saturday at 3 pm. This will be another tough game as Rovers still have a chance of a top-six place. With things getting tighter for the second spot in the table and only 3 games to go, AFCB will be looking for all 3 points.

Back in December Blackburn Rovers visited Dean Court and beat us 0-2, it was the fourth game of a six game-winning run for Rovers. At the end of the year with 24 games played Rovers were in third place in the table with 45 pts. The Cherries were top having played 25 games with 49 pts and Fulham second after 23 games with 45 pts. Blackburn Rovers looked to be a team at that time that would be challenging for automatic promotion.

Since the start of 2022, their form had dropped as they had a number of mixed results and gradually slid down the table and outside of the play-off places. This was partly due to their leading scorer Ben Brereton who had scored 20 goals in 24 league games up until the end of December. Since then his scoring form dropped and he also was out for a number of weeks with an injury. He has scored 1 goal in his 9 starts and 2 substitute appearances.

At home, since we played Tony Mowbray’s side, they have beaten Birmingham City 4-0, Barnsley 2-1, Middlesbrough and QPR 1-0 and Derby County 3-1. Drawn 0-0 against Huddersfield Town and Millwall and Blackpool 1-1. Rovers have lost 0-2 against Nottingham Forest, 0-1 Bristol City and in their last home game, 0-1 against Stoke City. Away from home, they have W 2, D 3, L 7. In their most recent game on Monday night, they had their first win in six matches home and away when they visited Preston which finished 1-4. It was the first time since November that Mowbray started with a back four. They are in 7th place on 66 pts, 3 points outside a play-off spot with two games to play.

The last time we played Blackburn Rovers away was April this year, the Cherries had their second win in 10 visits to Ewood Park. Philip Billing and Arnaut Danjuma were the scorers, it finished 0-2.

AFCB’s away league record against Blackburn Rovers, W2, D 1, L 7.
In all competitions, AFCB have W 7, D 6, L 13.

Blackburn Rovers Team News
Reda Khadra and Dilan Markanday seem to be their only injuries.

Blackburn Rovers Player To Watch
Ben Brereton who is the leading scorer with 21 league goals and against Preston looked in good form and assisted 2 of the goals. Joe Rothwell who was strongly linked with us has 10 assists to his name and is good at set-pieces. Sam Gallagher has contributed with 9 league goals in 26 starts.

AFCB Team News
Todd Cantwell missed the Swansea game due to a back problem. After seeing Kieffer Moore make a return at Swansea, maybe Jordan Zemura will be in the squad at Blackburn.

AFCB Player To Watch
If he starts it will be good to see how Kieffer Moore and Dominic Solanke work together on the pitch. Moore made a real impact when he came on at Swansea and turned the game on its head and could have had a hat-trick. Be interesting if he comes on as a substitute again or Scott Parker starts with him to try and get a goal or two, as he did when he came on in the 62nd minute in the last game at Swansea.

The Referee
Keith Stroud is in charge of this game, he has taken three of our games this season, home and away against QPR and away against West Brom.

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