Gary Bowyer decided to push the boat out after his Blackburn Rovers team gave Stoke City a sound hiding. How? By eating a Mars Bar, of course.
Bowyer, a sober character, attempted a facade of focusing on the next match following this 4-1 dismantling of the Potters that took Rovers into Monday evening’s draw for the FA Cup quarter-finals. Rovers are 11 points from a promotion berth in the Championship, and Bowyer wants attention to move to Cardiff City on Tuesday evening.
Even a fine hat-trick from Josh King – the former Manchester United striker also won the penalty for Rudy Gestede’s goal in first-half added time – failed to animate the manager. Put to him Rovers were only a match from a Wembley semi-final, he said: “Of course – our main focus is Cardiff and then we will deal with the next round when it comes around. Once you get to that stage I don’t think people are necessarily bothered who you play, as long as you get a home draw.”
Finally, the 43-year-old cracked when asked how he might mark the victory. “I don’t know is the answer,” he said with a smile. “I didn’t expect and plan to. My daughter climbed Kilimanjaro last week and so she celebrated with a Mars Bar I think she said. So I might try that one.”
Peter Crouch’s 10th-minute opener – his third in three outings – put Stoke into an early ascendancy that suggested it may be an easy afternoon for Mark Hughes’s side. But after chances were spurned by the visitors, a memorable effort from Rovers ended with four unanswered strikes to send Stoke home with an embarrassing hiding.
King’s first – the equaliser – came from a flicked header beyond Jack Butland at a Rovers corner. The Norway forward also ensured Rovers would have only 10 men to play in the second half when he was bundled over by Geoff Cameron for the penalty as half-time approached and Anthony Taylor, the referee, sent off the defender.
Ten minutes after the interval and King completed his hat-trick, after twice burning off the Stoke rearguard with jet-heeled pace down the left before calmly poking home beyond Butland.
King, a 23-year-old who began his career at Old Trafford, has a contract that expires this summer. Bowyer hopes he will sign a fresh deal and that Gestede and another of his in-demand strikers, Jordan Rhodes, will also remain for next season. “The club are in talks with Josh, we are trying to take care of that,” he said. “Full credit to the owners because they stuck to their guns with their valuation with Jordan Rhodes in the August window and Rudy in this window.
“Obviously we have a long way to go before then and a lot of football to play, hopefully our situation might have changed and the lads will want to stay here themselves.”
Blackburn’s owners, Venky’s, are enjoying positive news on the field after a controversial period of their proprietorship. “They understood they made some mistakes but like everybody they are learning from them and continuing to learn,” Bowyer said. “We work together with them, they have been very supportive of me. I can’t praise them enough on that. And if you look at the amount of money they pump into this club still, without them this club would be struggling.
“When I took over [as permanent manager in May 2013], the main aim was to keep us out of the papers because the headlines were for the wrong reasons. But today, after being named manager, this is the proudest moment because we are hopefully going to get positive reports for our football which is what we have been working for.”
Bowyer and the club now look forward to the draw, which takes place before the final fifth- round tie, Manchester United’s trip to Preston North End. “Hopefully we can get another home [match], a full gate, TV coverage and bring some much-needed cash,” added Bowyer.
While his changing of eight players from the XI that defeated Rotherham United last time out was vindicated, Hughes was let down by the 10 outfield players he retained from the 4-1 loss to Manchester City.
The Welshman said: “It’s disappointing. I was hoping for a performance level like we showed for the first 45 minutes against City. We weren’t able to sustain that for the full 90 minutes unfortunately, because we were up against a high-quality side.”
A confrontation between Stoke fans and stewards and police towards the close of the match may be investigated by the FA.
Man of the match Josh King (Blackburn)
