Town dropped points at home for the second time in four days as missed chances led to a draw with Blackburn Rovers. Town dropped loanee Michael Clegg, moved Fabian Wilnis to right wing back and brought in Manu Thetis and Jermaine Wright for the injured James Scowcroft and John McGreal.
Town dominated a very noisy first half, clearly the jibes form Look East and a national newspaper had got to the Town crowd as the volume was raised from the low point of Saturday.
The first half was a half of enormous Town domination and possession. Rarely did Blackburn venture forward and when they did they found Tony Mowbray and Manu Thetis were both at their best. Coming forward Fabian Wilnis was looking brighter than he had at any point this season, whilst ahead of him on the right Jermaine Wright was starting to look the part. It was Fabian who had possibly the best chance of the half after exchanging passes and finding himself one-on-one with the keeper. His finsish, however was straight against Kelly.
Others to come close in the first half were Jamie Clapham, who hit the bar when returning a cleared corner with interest and David Johnson. Johnson, who was busy all night, was unlucky to score when he had a shot saved by Kelly only for the ball to rebound out at and give him a second go from a very tight angle as Kelly recovered. Unfortunately the ball went across the face of the goal with no-one following in. Johnson also came close when he took the ball on a run before hitting a right foot shot against the post with Kelly beaten. The half drew to a close with Town fans knowing their side were the superior team, but frustrated at the lack of goals.
At half-time Blackburn brought on Matt Jansen for the invisible Nathan Blake. Blackburn improved and even looked a reasonable side during the early stages of the half. The game became one of those dominated by a midfield battle with the odd half chance going to either side. Blackburn's best chances came late on when a few minutes of refereeing madness saw a couple of undeserved corners and a highly dubious free-kick given to the visitors. The free-kick was floated in as the Town defence organised itself and discussion continued with the referee. Fortunately for Town Ashley Ward's header flew wide of Richard Wright's left hand post. A few minutes later Tony Mowbray missed a cross and Damien Duff should have done better than to miskick with only Richard Wright in his way. Town also had their chances with Matt Holland bringing an excellent late save from Alan Kelly. Jamie Clapham and Jim Magilton both should have done better with free-kicks (and in Clapham's case his corners which were once again poor) and even late substitute Richard Naylor came close with a header.
An excellent first half perfoamance then, despite the lack of goals against opposition who are obviously better than their lowly position suggests. The star on the night was Fabian Wilnis who has come in for a stack of criticism this season, but who terrorised the Blackburn left side all night. Whether the fact that the more attacking Damian Duff was his marker is relevant or not Wilnis still showed more class than he has for some while. Elsewhere Manu Thetis showed some of his crotics what he can do with a thoroughly solid game (and no booking!), and Jermaine Wright had some excellent moment in the first half.
The second half even incuded a cameo by a cat which ran out from the North Stand tried to enter the Britannia Stand before returning to the North, where presumably it was escorted from the ground by a steward before being fined £800.
Two points dropped then, but if at the beginning of the season we had said we'd get two draws out of Blackburn, we'd have been reasonably happy wouldn't we?
R Wright 7 Little wrong
Wilnis 9 Streets better than normal
Thetis 8 Solid performance
Mowbray 7 One almost serious error
Brown 7 Passing could have been better
Clapham 8 Unlucky with shot
Holland 8 Header well-saved
Magilton 8 Passed around well
J Wright 8 Looking better these days (Stockwell 76)
Johnson 8 Needs a couple of goals
Stewart 6 Worryingly poot two games (Naylor 85)