Marked for Ryan Hedges
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Geoffrey Kondogbia was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Blackburn Rovers training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andri Guðjohnsen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Oct 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Blackburn Rovers are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Blackburn Rovers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Oct 2026
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Andri Guðjohnsen falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match10 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 48. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Geoffrey Kondogbia was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match3 Oct 2026
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match3 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Blackburn Rovers training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sondre Tronstad is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Harry Pickering, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Blackburn Rovers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Luke Campbell is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match26 Sep 2026
Derby County left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Blackburn Rovers training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dwight Gayle is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
Geoffrey Kondogbia was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match5 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Middlesbrough, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Hayden Carter falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 7.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Balázs Tóth was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Blackburn Rovers training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sondre Tronstad is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match22 Aug 2026
A 2‑1 win over Rotherham United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market17 Aug 2026
Business is business: Tom Atcheson goes
Milton Keynes Dons paid $1.3M and Blackburn Rovers took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Balázs Tóth in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Blackburn Rovers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
4 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Sondre Tronstad falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match15 Aug 2026
A 2‑0 win over Milton Keynes Dons, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market17 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jason Richardson is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market17 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nathan Fisher has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.