Heady Heady Heady

Aug 27 2011 by Nick Hilton, Liverpool Echo

BLACKBURN ROVERS have been such a fixture in the top flight – 18 out of 20 seasons – that it is easy to forget that they are essentially a small-town club.

Blackburn’s population is 100,000, so attendances at Ewood Park, though often amongst the lowest in the Premier League, nevertheless represent a high level of local support.

Blackburn enjoyed their most successful era shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, winning first division titles in 1912 and 1914.

The more recent successes are associated with Jack Walker, the local-born steel magnate who pumped millions of pounds of his own wealth into the team that won the 1994/95 Premier League title, and with Kenny Dalglish, the manager who turned Walker’s hopes and ambitions into reality on the field.

Dalglish’s former Liverpool team-mate, Graeme Souness, also enjoyed success as a manager at Blackburn, winning the League Cup in 2002.

However, with gates of just over 20,000, Blackburn have to punch above their weight to survive in the Premier League.

The solid work of managers Mark Hughes and Sam Allardyce kept Rovers in the top half of the table for four out of five seasons towards the end of the first decade of the 21st-century. Paul Ince was less successful in a short spell in charge and Allardyce departed last December, less than two months after Indian company VH Group, a conglomerate specialising in food, animal feeds and pharmaceuticals, bought control of the club.

Current manager Steve Kean was initially appointed on a caretaker basis following Allardyce’s dismissal. Then in January this year Kean signed a contract that runs until the summer of 2013.

Kean boasts previous experience as assistant manager at Fulham .