View from the Opposition
A bit about you: I'm a 27 year old Sports Journalism graduate, currently living in the football mad city of Liverpool, where I work for a charity and do a bit of freelance teaching.
Name: Rael Mason
Current home town: Liverpool
Birthplace: Awkward to admit here, but I'm actually a Leicester lad who chose to support Rovers when I was a boy.
How long have you supported your team? Just over 20 years now. I won't mention too much about the game that clinched my support, but let's just say it was at Wembley and is probably a painful memory for City fans!
Overview of your club: How long have you got? I still don’t have the first idea what our owners are trying to accomplish or who’s really pulling the strings. From managers being surprisingly sacked, to others being surprisingly kept on, boardroom struggles, crazy transfer rumours, embarrassing interviews, relegation. We’ve seen a lot in the past three years, and very little of it has been good.
On the bright side, we have some good young players coming through, and they’re all getting playing time this season, so maybe we can regroup and come back on a more sure footing. That’s me trying to be optimistic, but I don’t trust the current owners or executives at all.
Favourite thing about your home ground: I’m always kind of amused by how it’s effectively only three quarters built, and has been for well over a decade. We have three sizeable stands, and if we brought the other one up to their level we’d hold 40,000. The only thing is that we’ll never get anywhere near that attendance, so there’s no point expanding it, which means we effectively have three Premier League stands and one cattle shed!
Favourite match played by your team & why: If you talking about ever, then strangely, it would be a defeat. It just so happened that our defeat at Liverpool on May 14th 1995, coupled with Man United’s draw at West Ham, meant that we’d won the Premier League.
It was such an odd situation, watching on TV and seeing the whole of Anfield celebrating, with the Liverpool fans delighted for Kenny Dalglish and also happy that United hadn’t won the league, and our fans going mental that our beloved Jack Walker had given us a Premier League title!
For me, I’m unlikely to ever see us win the league again in my lifetime, and it came the day before my 10th birthday, so it’s pretty hard to top.
Favourite player of all time who played for your club: There are a few to choose from. Obviously as a kid I loved Shearer and his relentless goal scoring exploits. Another favourite is Tugay; the Turkish midfielder is easily the most gifted player I’ve ever seen pull on a Blackburn shirt, and was embarrassing midfielders ten years his junior until well into his thirties. A real Rovers Legend.
My favourite personally though is Matt Jansen. His story is one of what could have been, as he had a motorbike crashed that effectively ended his career at the top level. He was such a special player though, and would have gone onto play for one of England’s top clubs for sure had he not been so unfortunate. He was a joy to watch for the years we had him, and I still get Jansen on my Rovers shirts some seasons.
About our forthcoming match against you: Well, both teams are going into it a long way from top form. I don’t think either of us have won in our last three league games, which put an end to strong runs before that. I know you have a strong home record and a pretty tight defensive unit, and I’ve been impressed by a number of your young players this season, but I’m hoping we turn around our poor league run before you do and can nick a win. I’d take a draw though.
Your favourite current player in your squad and why? Jordan Rhodes’ goals are quickly winning my affections, and I loved Bentley first time round, but my favourite player right now is probably Jason Lowe. He’s a young central midfielder who captained England under-20’s at their most recent World Cup, and after playing most of last season at right back, he’s getting to play in midfield this season and is really progressing.
Player in your squad we should most fear and why? It has to be Jordan Rhodes. I know there are a few others who are in the conversation, but in my opinion he’s the best striker in the division. He’s feeding off scraps some weeks, but from the day he joined the club he’s been our best player, and if you give him any time or space in the box then he’s capable of punishing you.
Player in our squad you most fear and why? Well, I know Knockaert is prone to brilliance at times, but he seems inconsistent and I’m not sure how likely he is to start, so I’ll go with Chris Wood. He’s got goals for Millwall before Christmas, and he’s been scoring for you since he arrived, so he’d have to be the danger.
Up and coming prospect in your squad? Our young goalkeeper Jake Kean looks a real talent. He was superb at Arsenal last week when we stole a win, but that’s far from his only good performance since he’s come into the team. Hopefully a long-term solution for us between the posts.
Where do you think you’ll finish this season? If you’d have asked me this a week ago after we beat Arsenal and had games in hand, I’d have thought we’d make the playoffs. We finally looked to have some consistency under Michael Appleton, and were looking strong.
After a draw and a defeat this week though, as well as injuries to four pretty important squad members, I think we have an outside shot at best. That said, we have real firepower for this level with Rhodes, Kazim-Richards, DJ Campbell and the returning Leon Best, and if we can get anywhere near his best from David Bentley, he’s too good for this division.
So I’m not counting out our chances completely, but I think we’ll fall short of nicking that final playoff spot and finish seventh or eighth.
How do you think you’ll do against us? As I mentioned before, even in your current form, Leicester’s a tough place for an away side to come. I know Charlton won here last week, but I’m sure your players will want to provide a response and get back on track, so it’ll be a battle. Like I said, I’d take a draw, but if we lose, I think that’s the end of our playoff hopes.
Any other comments? Just that I wish Leicester the best for the rest of the season, starting immediately after the game! I’ve got a lot of friends who follow the team, and I’m impressed by the young group of players you’ve put together.
So in my ideal scenario, you get back on track and get that second automatic spot, and we sneak into sixth and get up through the playoffs. An unlikely combo maybe, but I’m not giving up hope just yet!