Kean: Rovers can return from our relegation
BLACKBURN ROVERS (0) vs WIGAN ATHLETIC (1)
DEFIANT Blackburn manager Steve Kean vowed to inspire a Premier League return after defeat to Wigan sealed their relegation to the Championship amid another chorus of criticism from the club’s deeply unhappy fans.
Antolin Alcaraz’s late winner was enough to separate the sides and leave Blackburn six points from safety with only a game to play on an evening where drama reigned everywhere but within the game’s play.
“I will sit down with the owners and discuss a plan on how to assemble a squad to help us bounce back up straight away,” said Kean. “We need to keep the majority of the squad together and add one or two experienced players that can help us, so from the first game of the season we are ready to bounce back and make sure we are in the division we should be in.
“I am convinced we can go on and build a side that can move us forward again, but this is a massive setback.”
If the atmosphere emanating from Rovers’ fans was poisonous – some remained in the ground to protest an hour after the final whistle – that from Wigan’s and manager Roberto Martinez was one of true joy after their own unlikely, stunning survival was sealed.
Martinez said: “It doesn’t seem real yet. It’s been a great run but football is about the players. They made the football club and chairman proud.”
The first-half was overshadowed by a chicken invading the pitch in an instant that was thoroughly emblematic of Blackburn’s season: where urgency, unity and on-pitch results should have been the priority, season long derision from fans of both Kean and the club owner’s Venky’s ultimately overshadowed.
Towards the end of the first-half, a foul on Junior Hoilett by Emerson Boyce was somehow not given as a penalty, and thereafter Blackburn’s fate gradually slid out of their grasp.
During the interval, an even graver situation had threatened when rumours arose of Gael Givet, known to suffer from heart problems, having to be treated by paramedics, though his reappearance early in the second-half after being substituted eased fears of a more sinister outcome.
On balance, Wigan remained the stronger side and it eventually told. At an 87th-minute corner, Alcaraz’s run went unfollowed and the defender headed Beausejour’s delivery past the despairing Paul Robinson, finalising the fates of both sides.