Rovers Return

Making sure we selected the right scarves for the occasion, 11yo, 7yo and I headed over to Lancashire on the train to watch nephew Adam turn out for Blackburn Rovers.

My sister kindly collected and fed us before we headed down to Ewood Park for kick-off. We were last here in May for the final game of the 14-15 season and co-incidentally Ipswich Town were the opponents on both occasions.  Today, Rovers raced into a two goal lead inside 15 minutes, both scored by Jordan Rhodes. They proceeded to dominate the match, playing some good football. Adam had a good game and was through on goal a couple of times. Rhodes was denied a hat-trick by the post. 2-0 it finished. A good win for Rovers and hopefully they can continue to climb the table after a slow start to the season.

Adam now joins up with the Welsh squad over the international break as we seek a point from two games to confirm qualification for the Euro finals in the summer. Hopefully that point will come in the first game in Bosnia next Saturday so that the final game at home to Andorra next week will be a celebratory occasion from the off. With any luck Adam will gain his first senior cap, although it's been understandably hard to displace players that have performed so well during qualification to date. A few of us will be in Cardiff next week with fingers and everything else crossed.

A final highlight of the day, a first journey along the Todmorden Curve - reinstated in May this year after a forty year gap - as we took the Blackburn-Manchester service into Todmorden, changing there for a Bradford train. It's the small things...