Wright was dropped (and about time to I hear some of you shouting). Bould was also dropped for Linighan. Seaman replaced by Vinnie and Jensen by Morrow (and about time to I hear some of you shouting). Helder and Parlour on the wings with Merson and Hartson up front. The opening minutes was rather an indication of things to come. Linighan blatantly pushed in the back near the touchline and the ref awards the free kick to Blackburn. Sutton knocked the ball in to Shearer's feet. He sort of miscontrolled but turned to bury the ball under Bartram. Things didn't improve much for the next twenty minutes. Linighan was chopped from behind by a Blackburn player, play on says the ref, Adams then does Shearer from behind in the resulting play and Le Saux goes on to bury one in the top corner from 30 yards. Adams is then booked as the Blackburn players celebrate. Thoughts of those 9 at Man U were coming ot mind at this stage as Blackburn's 12 players were looking a bit to strong. A curious thing happened though. As the half wore on we looked more and more dangerous. Morrow had a fine volley well pushed away by Flowers. Hartson was then played through and managed to toe poke the ball towards goal and he was being dragged to the turf. Flowers dived brilliantly down to push the ball away. Schwartz was having a bit of a stormer and getting stuck in at avery opportunity. Just to make a change he had someone backing him up in midfield as Morrow also battled well. The one thing that Morrow has over most of our midfielders is that his first reaction is to play forward rather than sideways. The Magic Man was also playing well running at an increasingly ragged Blackburn defence. Hartson had another near post shot brilliantly pushed away by Flowers. Though Blackburn deserved to be in the lead at half time a spirited comeback looked on the cards. Within a couple of minutes of the restart Linighan hacked down Atkins on the corner of the box and Shearer buried the ensuing pen. Linghan for some unknown reason thought Atkins had dived. Still the lad was playing well and the referee was in no mood to give us anything. Curiously enough we again fought back. Hartson pulled a ball back from the right wing and Morrow buried the ball into the emtpy net. Well, well. Merse was getting better and better and Hilda was getting more involved in the play. Merson played a delightful through ball to Parlour who showed his usual astute finishing touch and played the ball against Flowers legs. Parlour was having a bit of a stinker but then I have to say I just don't think he's good enough. Anyway things were looking promising as we dominated play. Blackburn threatened on the counter and Bartram made a couple of fine saves, one brilliant tip away and one fine block from the on rushing Shearer. SH continued in the Georgie mould of strange subs when Wright came on for Hartson. Merson played a delightful ball through to Wright but he dragged his shot wide of the post. Wright did however looke interested in playing. Hilda showed a fine burst of pace and ran around the full back. He then put in a delightful shot but Parlour's woeful header coming in barely threatened Flowers. Morrow was then left all alone at the far post from a free kick but also couldn't trouble Flowers with the header. A spirited effort in what was a fine performance. It's a pity that we lost those early goals. WInterburn, who looks well past it, and Dixon, who had one of those games when he couldn't pass, had very poor games as did Parlour. But the rest of the team battledhard and played some good football. Linighan was replaced by Bould towards the end for no apparant reason. Schwarz and Linighan were also booked for fairly innocuous challenges and Hartson also. We perhaps deserved something out of the game. The difference between the sides was Flowers and Shearer. First two shots by Blackburn went in, our first two brilliantly saved. I can't understand why Blackburn could only pull in 23,000 when they are top of the league. Personally I travel to watch Shearer alone, possible Englands only world class player. The big question is why didn't we play like this against West Ham ?
Report by Trevor Collins