Blackburn Rovers 0 Sunderland 0: match report

After a week in the gathering storm surrounding Wayne Rooney’s future, Sir Alex Ferguson no doubt looked at an evening at Ewood Park as a chance to take his mind off his troubles. As Blackburn Rovers and Sunderland ground each other to stalemate in alternating rain and sleet, the Manchester United manager will have found welcome distractions hard to come by.

Even the dismissal of Christopher Samba, Blackburn’s towering captain, on the cusp of half-time for a clumsy challenge on Danny Welbeck, failed to ignite a damp, disappointing game. Sam Allardyce’s team nullified their guests as Steve Bruce’s players lacked the vigour to break out of their suffocating grip.

Samba’s sending off, of course, was not a particular surprise, especially after the sort of opening period that suggests the red card is not long for the referee’s pocket. Brett Emerton and Nikola Kalinic both found their details taken by Lee Probert for reckless challenges, so too Sunderland’s Ahmed Elmohamady. El-Hadji Diouf, never far away when temperatures rise, shoved Phil Bardsley in the face.

Though both sides flew into challenges with the sort of glee that would make Danny Murphy shudder, it was predictable – after Allardyce’s staunch, fact-laden defence of his side’s disciplinary record before the game – that it should have been a Blackburn player dismissed.

At least Allardyce could opine afterwards that Samba was not sent off for “a dirty, nasty” challenge. Instead, the Congolese found himself in a muddle after a simple pass from Morten Gamst Pedersen, sacrificing the ball to Welbeck. He tugged the Sunderland winger back; Probert had no choice, his manager no complaints. “That’s the law,” Allardyce said.

Samba’s sending off reduced Blackburn to playing a defensive game but the match was hardly easy on the eye beforehand. Unlike fouls, chances had been scarce, the best of them falling to Darren Bent, though the England striker managed to fire straight at Paul Robinson after beating Gaël Givet to Bardsley’s hopeful punt forward.

All the hosts mustered, meanwhile, was a Pedersen free-kick which almost caught Simon Mignolet off guard and a Kalinic header that flashed comfortably wide. Samba’s dismissal reduced their ambition yet further.

Allardyce can take solace from the ease with which Sunderland’s strike force were kept at bay, though.

Indeed, it was only as the hosts’ legs tired that the visitors created any opportunities of note. Only Asamoah Gyan, though, drew Robinson into executive action, his curling effort clawed away at the last.

Ferguson, like the rest of Ewood Park, was condemned to trudge away cold, and wet, and thoroughly undistracted.