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Tony Mowbray reacts to drawing Newcastle United

5 years ago
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Tony Mowbray has been talking about facing Newcastle United in the FA Cup.

The Blackburn boss claims not even to have watched Monday night’s draw, with Rovers picked out to visit St James Park in January.

Mowbray took over at Blackburn in February 2017 and has done a remarkable job.

He couldn’t prevent them going down that season but produced instant promotion and, despite a limited budget, has established them in 10th place in the Championship, only five points off the play-offs.

As Tony Mowbray points out, in the months before he took over two seasons ago, Blackburn managed to beat Newcastle home and away.

Rafa’s team managing to lose both games 1-0, with Rovers scoring with their only shot on target each time.

That season, Blackburn were one of three clubs to do the double over Newcastle United.

Surprised to see how long it is since Blackburn were in the Premier League, as the previous match was in February 2012, Newcastle winning 2-0 at Ewood Park having won 3-1 at St James Park earlier in the season. United of course finishing fifth that season as Blackburn were relegated.

That season also saw the two clubs meet in the FA Cup at St James Park, Newcastle trailing 1-0 until a Hatem Ben Arfa wonder goal and last minute Jonas Gutierrez one turned things around.

Adam Armstrong will be looking forward to his early return to SJP and former Sunderland striker Danny Graham as well, Tony Mowbray saying he had just found out that Graham (pictured above) was a childhood Newcastle fan (born in Gateshead).

Tony Mowbray talking to official club site:

“I’ll be totally honest, I didn’t watch the draw…I’m told it’s Newcastle away, and with the cup, it is what it is.

“A home draw would have been nice but we have to travel and it will be a good test for us against a Premier League side. It’s one we can look forward to.

“We’ll go there on the day and see how we get on.

“We beat Newcastle twice a couple of seasons ago in the Championship, so I think we should go there and give a good account of ourselves. Let’s go there and see what we can do in what is a one-off game.

“It’s a Saturday game and we won’t take it lightly.

“I didn’t know Danny Graham was a Newcastle fan, so I’ve learnt something new today, but we all know about Arma’s connection to the club.

“We’ll have to see what the team is like in January, see whether Danny is playing and whether Arma is playing.

“I’m sure it’ll be a good day out for our supporters, who have been there pretty recently.

“Let’s see if we can have a similar result to our last meeting with them.”

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