Read a full match report of the Premier League game between Blackburn Rovers and Liverpool at Ewood Park on Wednesday Jan 5 2011.
The last time Roy Hodgson lost his job following a defeat at Ewood Park, his fate was sealed with a tap on the shoulder from Jack Walker and a club statement hastily-scribbled on the back of a cigarette packet.
Liverpool’s tormented manager was spared a similar personal touch from his masters at the Fenway Sports Group in Boston on Wednesday night, but if he survives another day at Anfield following this abject defeat at Blackburn Rovers, it might just up there with the miracle of Istanbul.
Having apparently left Ewood Park in tears after being sacked as manager by Walker following a 2-0 defeat at home to Southampton in Nov 1998, Hodgson might have approached this fixture with a shiver running through his spine due to his precarious position at Anfield.
Few managers can have suffered the misfortune of twice losing their job at the same ground, but on an evening when his players deserted him and the club’s supporters called for him to be sacked, can Hodgson really expect to survive in his position long enough for him to be in charge for the FA Cup tie at Manchester United on Sunday?
Two goals from Benjani and one from Martin Olsson sealed Liverpool’s fate long before Steven Gerrard’s late consolation, but Blackburn also sealed Hodgson’s?
Liverpool’s victory against Bolton at Anfield on New Year’s Day secured precious breathing space for Hodgson and, perhaps, delayed the inevitability of his departure as manager.
Yet as a result of the performances of his team and his own critical comments about the Liverpool support following last Wednesday’s defeat at home to Wolves, each fixture is accompanied by suffocating pressure for Hodgson.
Liverpool’s record against Blackburn – 1 defeat in their last 24 league games – should have offered some consolation, but like the other statistic, that the two away league victories in 2010 came against clubs beginning with ‘B’ – Burnley and Bolton – it was ultimately meaningless once the two teams took to the pitch.
Blackburn, enduring a different kind of turmoil thanks to the bewildering decisions of their new owners, the India-based Venky’s poultry processors, are not quite as unstable on the pitch as they appear to be off it, however, and Steve Kean’s team showed within the opening ten minutes that they were capable of inflicting further misery of Hodgson’s Liverpool.
They may have been without key figures such as goalkeeper Paul Robinson, Phil Jones, Brett Emerton and striker Nikola Kalinic, but Blackburn immediately displayed more intent and cohesion than their confidence-shorn opponents.
The Liverpool malaise even extended to the travelling contingent in Ewood Park’s Darwen End. Traditionally, the 7,000-capacity enclosure is full of red and white when Liverpool come to town, but on this occasion, red and white was sprinkled with the light blue of the empty seats left exposed by the failure of the Merseysiders to sell their allocation.
With Saturday’s attendance at Anfield the lowest for a league game since 2004, the message to Hodgson and the Liverpool hierarchy is clear – fans are voting with their feet and in large numbers.
Many of them took to their heels and headed out of the ground once Benjani’s 37th minute goal had put Blackburn 2-0 ahead following Martin Olsson’s opener, six minutes earlier.
With their team trailing 2-0 and Blackburn fans taunting their former manager Hodgson with chants of ‘You’re getting sacked in the morning!’ the end result appeared blindingly predictable.
Olsson’s goal was merely a reward for Blackburn’s bright start, during which they should have scored when Mame Biram Diouf fluffed a free shot from six yards on 16 minutes.
Swedish midfielder Olsson was much more clinical, however. Diouf’s neat ball into the penalty area was met by Olsson, who guided a first-time shot through the legs of Pepe Reina to make it 1-0.
Liverpool’s back four was nowhere to be seen and the defensive frailties that have haunted them all season resurfaced as Benjani struck to double Blackburn’s lead.
The Zimbabwean forward received the ball from Morten Gamst Pedersen on ten yards from goal and, despite the imposing stature of Sotirios Kyrgiakos, he turned the Greek centre-half with ease before aiming a right-foot strike into the roof of the net.
Liverpool’s second-half improvement needed to be swift and dramatic if they were to save themselves, and probably their manager, but the first sarcastic chorus of ‘Hodgson for England’ came from the Darwen End just four minutes after the restart.
A Steven Gerrard shot, pushed wide by goalkeeper Mark Bunn, and a 20 yard effort by Joe Cole were merely the twitchings of a corpse.
And once Benjani made it 3-0 at the near post on 58 minutes, following hopeless defending by Glen Johnson and Martin Skrtel against the pacy Junior Hoilett, the Liverpool supporters began to vent their full fury on Hodgson.
Chants of ‘Dalglish’ came first followed by the one which will have been heard across the Atlantic in Boston – ‘You’re getting sacked in the morning!’
That was bad enough when it came from the Blackburn supporters, but this rendition was as Scouse as a Beatles number one.
Gerrard’s goal, a powerful strike from ten yards, reduced the deficit, but the game had already been lost.
And if was a late attempt to save Hodgson, it is unlikely to work.
