Ewood Park: Where Football Goes To Die?

Ewood Park: Where Football Goes To Die?

Ewood Park is one of the most recognisable stadiums in English football.

It has been the home of Blackburn Rovers since 1890 and has seen the Blue and Whites through almost their entire history as a football club.

Whether it be Premier League titles or stints in the third division, Ewood Park has seen almost every emotion pulse through its stands.

But perhaps nothing the stadium has witnessed has been quite as damning as the madness that is unfolding this season.

Blackburn's Home Form In the Bin

It's safe to say Blackburn's start to the season hasn't exactly gone to plan. They currently sit down in 18th place and just four measly points above the looming relegation zone.

If you take their campaign purely on away games, you actually have a tally of decent reading, with five of their nine away games having ended in wins.

The issue is that sentiment ends pretty abruptly when you take a gander at their abhorrent form at Ewood Park.

They have a solitary win on home soil this season, that win coming against Southampton back on October 25th – not exactly a stat you want if you're the Saints, is it?

Yet, despite how much banter material you could get out of purely that stat alone, we aren't done there because it actually does get worse.

Sack The Groundsman

On September 20th, with 79 minutes on the clock and Blackburn leading recently relegated Ipswich Town, referee Stephen Martin decided the only option was to abandon the game after torrential rainfall had left the surface unplayable.

An extremely rare occurrence and one that both screwed Blackburn over, as the game would have to be replayed in full, and was quite frankly just a little embarrassing for the Lancashire club.

Fast forward to the weekend just gone, and once again Blackburn Rovers were at home. This time, they faced the defeated Sheffield Wednesday, who were coming off the back of yet another points deduction – a big opportunity for the hosts to begin righting that inexcusable home form.

But, in a bizarre example of deja vu, the game was once again abandoned with Blackburn 1-0 up due to the surface becoming waterlogged, this time in the 60th minute.

And that means that, with just under half of the Championship season complete, Blackburn Rovers have had more home games abandoned due to the state of the pitch than they've had wins at Ewood Park.

Someone get the groundsman on the blower and ask him what on earth he's spending his time doing, because it can't be sorting out the pitch.

Can't imagine he'll be in a job too much longer, can you?

It Can't Get Any Worse, Can It?

Two abandonments for the state of the pitch in a single season are almost unheard of, and at the Championship level, to have a pitch which becomes unplayable at the first sight of a bit of rain is absolutely diabolical.

Not only does it give a terrible look to Blackburn as a club, but it also reflects the shambolic nature of their season so far.

A club which was once crowned champions at the pinnacle of English football, falling so far that they can't even get their pitch ready for a relegation six-pointer in the second tier of the pyramid.

Blackburn are in desperate need of change, or they face becoming one of England's lost football clubs – but right now, they need to get over the embarrassing goings-on of this season before they can think about anything else.