The Blackburn miracle will scale new heights tonight

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It’s hard not to begrudgingly admire Blackburn under Sam Allardyce. Despite routinely looking every inch the worst team in the Premier League, they somehow sit 13th in the table.

Even more impressively, Ewood Park has been transformed into something of a fortress. There’s no rousing atmosphere to credit for the success though because fans have nothing to get excited about.

Instead, supporters are too busy nursing sore necks and wishing they could turn the clock back 15 years – though they’ve not yet reached the point of

Posted: January 14th, 2010 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Paul Hart’s good start, Boro’s strong home form and more

Five stats about this weekend’s football

1. Only Manchester United and Liverpool have taken more points at home than Tottenham since Harry Redknapp took over in October. Spurs have won seven, drew four and lost one of their twelve under the former Portsmouth boss.

2. Middlesbrough are now unbeaten in six league games at the Riverside and would be four points clear of the drop right now if only home results were taken into account.

Posted: April 14th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Blackburn won’t make it easy for Liverpool to regain form

Liverpool/Blackburn, Sat 12.45pm, Sky S1, Free Bets, Best Odds

The best odds available on Liverpool is 1/3 with Bet365 and Paddy Power, a price that is ridiculously short considering Blackburn’s record under Sam Allardyce and the fact Chelsea just humbled the Reds at Anfield.

Liverpool have only won five of their last eleven home matches against Blackburn and the visitors have lost just three of their 14 league games since Allardyce took charge. The good news for Rafael Benitez though is that those defeats came in their three clashes with top five opposition.

Posted: April 9th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | 1 Comment

Why Blackburn and Spurs may have to settle for a point

Blackburn/Spurs, Sat 12.45pm, Sky Sports 1, Free Bets, Best Odds

chickendinner were fans of Heurelho Gomes even when he was ridiculed earlier this season but even we anticipate a difficult day for our favourite Brazilian goalkeeper at Ewood Park. He will be forced to contend with flair player-turned-catapult Morten Gamst Pedersen’s long throws, El-Hadji Diouf’s lunges, Christopher Samba’s aerial threat and having one of Sam Allardyce’s giants obstructing him every time Blackburn win a set-piece. However we still expect form league leaders Spurs to take a point home with them. Here’s why we fancy the draw at 3.35 with Betfair:

» Five of the last eight clashes between the two sides have finished level.

» The last three meetings between Blackburn and Spurs at Ewood Park have been drawn.

» Blackburn have drawn four of their last five Premier League home games.

Posted: April 3rd, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Newcastle managers normally get off to a strong start

Maybe Alan Shearer won’t be a complete disaster after all

Newcastle are 11 points shy of the magic 40 points mark that has been enough to survive in all but one of the last 13 seasons. To help figure out what chance Alan Shearer has of achieving that total, chickendinner decided to look at how well the last few Magpies bosses have settled into the role:

The positive sign is that seven of the eight took at least ten points although it is notable that the one exception was the big hearts-over-head appointment heralded as the return of a messiah to St James’ Park. In terms of the betting, Newcastle are now 2.3 on Betfair to be relegated, having been 2.12 before rumours of Shearer’s impending appointment started to circulate.

Posted: April 2nd, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Newcastle are more likely to survive under Alan Shearer

So say Paddy Power, who have lengthened their relegation odds

Paddy Power believe that the appointment of inexperienced club legend Alan Shearer has boosted Newcastle’s chances of Premier League survival this season. The Magpies were 11/10 to be relegated at this point yesterday with the Irish bookmakers but have now gone out to 6/5.

The last man who stepped off the Match of the Day couch to replace an ill manager in a relegation battle was Trevor Brooking in 2002/03. “His club” West Ham ended the season unbeaten under him but still went down.

But while Brooking was successful in both of his stand-in spells despite lacking experience, Newcastle have got worse with every managerial appointment since Glenn Roeder, who had a win percentage of 45.83%. Sam Allardyce took over next and recorded 33.33%, Kevin Keegan then managed 28.57% before Joe Kinnear.

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Posted: April 1st, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment