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So it's off to East Lancashire to check in there are still 4000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire, with an estimated 7600 away fans in attendance apparently it's our cup final after all we are playing the side that won the Premier League a mere 24 years ago, another song does sum up some Rovers fans, Jethro Tull's Living in the past.
The fixture at Deepdale saw North End win 4-1 that day, little was seen that day of Rovers playmaker Bradley Dack as he was completely snuffed out of the game by Pearson who sadly will be missing due to another suspension, he's back on Wednesday against Boro.
Be interesting to see how we cope away from home without him not a surprise our record without him is slightly worse than it is with him in the side.
Danny Graham is a wily old campaigner and they have the left foot of Charlie Mulgrew probably the best centre defender to take dead ball kicks.
Last time there we grabbed a late draw with a McGeady goal in the 93rd minute and the season before that won 2-1.
Mowbray less than impressed with their defending at Rotherham expect a bit of a reaction. 12 pm kick off Saturday bring it on.

Blackburn Rovers Football Club /ˈblækbɜːrn ˈroʊvərz/ is a professional football club in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system, following promotion from League One at the end of the 2017–18 season.

The club was established in 1875, becoming a founding member of The Football League in 1888 and the Premier League in 1992. In 1890, Rovers moved to Ewood Park. Blackburn Rovers have been English champions three times, and have won six FA Cups and one Football League Cup.[3] The club has spent most of its existence in the top flight of English football.[4]

In 1992, Rovers gained promotion to the new Premier League a year after being taken over by local entrepreneur Jack Walker, who installed Kenny Dalglish as manager. In 1995, Rovers became Premier League champions.[5] In the 1998–99 season, the club was relegated. It was promoted back to the Premier League two years later, in the 2000–01 season. It has qualified for the UEFA Cup four times: once as League Cup winners, twice as the Premier League's sixth-placed team and once via the Intertoto Cup.

The club's motto is "Arte et Labore", "By Skill and Hard Work" in Latin.

Manager Alex Neil has received a boost with Callum Robinson and Louis Moult both returning to training after their respective hamstring injuries.
Robinson picked up his injury in the reverse of this weekend’s fixture against Blackburn Rovers, after scoring in the 4-1 win, and has therefore been out for four months.

Moult, meanwhile, re-injured his muscle in the warm-up for the clash against his former club Stoke City at the end of January.

Ben Pearson will serve the final game of his two-match ban for receiving ten cautions this season, meaning he can return for the Lilywhites’ trip to face Middlesbrough on Wednesday night.

This leaves just Connor Ripley (ankle) and Billy Bodin and Josh Harrop (both ACL) definitely on the sidelines for the clash with Tony Mowbray’s side, in front of 7,500 North End fans.
Skipper Tom Clarke will be given every chance of returning, having missed the clash with Bristol City last weekend. He is improving after the knock that ruled him out of the clash with the Robins and will be given as long as possible to check his availability.

For Mowbray, his most notable issues at the moment are at centre half, with Darragh Lenihan’s knee injury ruling him out for the past month and with Paul Downing and Scott Wharton out on loan at Doncaster and Bury respectively, it means Charlie Mulgrew and Jack Rodwell continuing as the centre half partnership.

Derrick Williams is available to return, having missed the last two games through suspension, but his replacement, Amari’i Bell scored at Rotherham last weekend and was one of the east Lancashire side’s stand-out performers in the defeat.

Injury concerns elsewhere in the squad have eased, with forwards Dominic Samuel and Ben Gladwin the only long-term absentees, having been injured since the return fixture at Deepdale.

Danny Graham seems set to lead the line once again, but alternative striking options Ben Brereton and Joe Nuttall have both been on the scoresheet regularly as they have kept their match sharpness with games for Rovers’ U23s.

Ref Watch: Blackburn Rovers
Taking charge of his third PNE game of the season, and his second away from home in a few weeks, is referee Oliver Langford.
He was the match official at the end of January, as the Lilywhites triumphed 2-0 at the Bet365 Stadium against Stoke City.

Prior to that he refereed our Carabao Cup third round tie with Middlesbrough back in September and before that it had been 12 months since he last took charge of a game at Deepdale.

The West Midlands official, prior to the Boro game, last took charge of our Tuesday night clash with Cardiff City at Deepdale in September 2017, when the Lilywhites ran out 3-0 winners against Neil Warnock’s Bluebirds.

The previous season he took charge of three North End games. His first was the live Sky victory over Wigan Athletic back in September 2016, his second, our first match of the new year, at Burton Albion and his third the goalless draw away at Barnsley in February.
He also twice took charge of the Lilywhites in 2015/16; the goalless draw against Derby County, when goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard made his debut for the club, and the April trip to Middlesbrough.

His first game in change of North End before that was the clash with Swindon at the County Ground in November 2014.

This will also be his third Rovers game of the season, having officiated their 2-2 draw with Reading early on in the campaign and their 2-1 New Year’s Day home win over West Bromwich Albion, when he sent off one of the Baggies.

He will be assisted by Phil Dermott and Akil Howson, with experienced match official Anthony Backhouse acting as the fourth official for the game.

Blackburn Rovers 0 Preston North End 1 Johnson

Blackburn Rovers line-up: Raya, Nyambe, Williams, Reed (Nuttall, 63), Smallwood (Rothwell, 72), Armstrong, Graham, Mulgrew © (Bell, 72), Dack, Evans, Bennett. Subs not used: Leutwiler, Brereton, Travis, Conway.

PNE line-up: Rudd, Fisher, Hughes, Ledson, Storey, Davies, Nmecha (Rafferty, 90), Gallagher © (Stockley, 77), Maguire (Barker, 83), Browne, Johnson. Subs not used: Crowe, Earl, Ginnelly, Huntington.

Attendance: 21,577 (7,514 PNE fans)

Referee: Mr O Langford

Well in the end the soaking I get walking to the ground was well worth it, three points at Ewood our first doubkle over Rovers since 1978-79 when like this sedason the scores were 4-1 and 1-0, themove for the goal was outstanding however for the vast majority of this game we were absolutely pants, add into that the 5th away win on the bounce jut a pity we cannot replcate this form at home but will take the win'
No Barkhuizen or Potts both injured and with midfield God Pearson suspended, thought we might do well to get a point.
Started poorly lots of casual one touch football in all the wrong areas, nearly dropping us in the crap. However with our first real attack of the game Gallagher to Nmecha outpaced the Rovers defender advanced into the box Johnson did the rest. For a couple of minutes started to ply with a bit of flare didn't last long Rovers started to get more possession. Armsstong fired wide and the ball tom the hrad of Danny Graham was their main weapon, he won a lot of headers in and around the box but usually there was nobody there to follow it up. Mulgrew was also a danger from corners nearly scored direct from one.
Second half similar to the first we were poor but managed to keep them out to be honest Rovers were slightly predictable get the ball to Graham's head bailed out a couple of times by Rudd but as the game started to open up we began to get a few efforts on the home goal, Gally took an age to get a shot in which was easily saved, the keeper did well to save a Hughes cross as Nmecha lurked and late on Browne had a header deflected for a corner.
We also had to play the least couple of minutes with 10 as Fisher picked up his second yellow this meant Rafferty made his debut.
Midfield was the problem today did't really get a grip on things Rovers may consider themselves unlucky but life's a bitch ain't it.

https://youtu.be/THHulflse_Q

Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray:

"The attributes of this team are there on show every week. I think the performance is what we've had all season. At this moment, we're not able to turn them into goals and victories.

"Performance-wise, effort, honesty and commitment were all there. The bit that makes the difference - bit of quality around the edge of the box, the final pass, contact on a finish, obviously wasn't there.

"Ultimately, I can't be too harsh on them. We have to stick together and keep going. If I saw a drop-off on desire and determination to get results, I'd be more concerned.

"I don't see a drop-off but we've hit a patch where we can't win a game. What's the answer? Keep working hard, and it'll turn."

Preston manager Alex Neil:

"To keep the dream alive, we needed to come here and win the game.

"We started really well. From five minutes to 20, we came into the game, played on top of them. The one real quality move we made we scored the goal, which was excellent.

"After that, we sat a little deeper, absorbed pressure and hit Blackburn on the counter. Although they had a lot of the ball and pressure, I don't think they had a lot of clear-cut chances.

"It wasn't vintage Preston shall we say, but the three points are the most important thing."