Blackburn began the season dizzy with dreams of gatecrashing the English Premier League's elite. Instead, their inconsistent campaign has left manager Mark Hughes increasingly frustrated.
Hughes admits he has found the campaign a chore, and no wonder given the way his talented squad has failed to fire.
The addition of the impressive Paraguay international Roque Santa Cruz has been tempered by Benni McCarthy -- recently dropped in favor of Matt Derbyshire -- losing the consistency which made him such a startling success last term.
PHOTO: AFP
Even more worryingly, Rovers appear to have lost their famed obduracy. Santa Cruz scored a hat-trick in Blackburn's last league outing last Saturday, but it was still not enough to overpower Wigan, who fired five goals in reply.
And that has been the story of Blackburn's season so far. Solid victories over Reading and Newcastle have been juxtaposed by wretched results -- and performances -- against clubs Rovers would normally expect to crush.
Rolling with the highs and lows has inflicted significant damage, and not just on the club's bid to qualify for Europe. Confidence has also been dented, with Ryan Nelsen, the New Zealand defender, revealing he has been driven to insomnia.
"A bad run hurts us badly and we think 24 hours a day about how we can put it right," said the 30-year-old defender. "It's not like we go home and forget about it."
"I didn't get any sleep after the Arsenal game in the League Cup last week. You just end up taking the game home with you," he said. "My son is five weeks old, but the sleepless nights haven't been because of him. Sometimes, I'll get home after a game and sit on the couch with him for a couple of hours."
"I didn't think it was possible, but the manager has gone greyer over the last few weeks, but he and the coaching staff are doing everything possible to remedy the situation," Nelsen said.
That is easier said than done. Chelsea are the visitors to Ewood Park today and although defeat to Arsenal last Sunday stripped the gloss from Avram Grant's impressive managerial record, his team returned to their formidable best last Wednesday with a 2-0 victory in the League Cup quarter-finals over Liverpool.
That victory was teed up by Frank Lampard's opening goal and the midfielder now needs just one more to complete his century for the west London club.
Lampard may have fallen out of love with the vast majority of English soccer supporters, thanks to some lackluster performances for his country in their doomed Euro 2008 qualifying campaign, but his relationship with Chelsea remains as affectionate as ever.
Now, as he stands on the brink of his milestone, Grant has paid tribute to a man he considers to be his side's heartbeat.
"Frank is a great player, a great professional. He has a lot of qualities and one of them is to score a lot of goals," he said.
"I don't think there is another midfielder who has scored this number of goals but from his position in the midfield he has a lot of assists and he defends well," Grant said.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
The San Francisco Giants signed 18-year-old Taiwanese pitcher Yang Nien-hsi (陽念希) to a contract worth a total of US$500,000 (NT $16.39 million). At a press event in Taipei on Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Giants’ Pacific Rim Area scout Evan Hsueh (薛奕煌) presented Yang with a Giants jersey to celebrate the signing. The deal consisted of a contract worth US$450,000 plus a US$50,000 scholarship bonus. Yang, who stands at 188 centimeters tall and weighs 85 kilograms, is of Indigenous Amis descent. With his fastest pitch clocking in at 150 kilometers per hour, Yang had been on Hsueh’s radar since playing in the HuaNan Cup
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
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