Blackburn Rovers became the first Premier League champions
to drop into the third tier of English football on Sunday whilst Newcastle
claimed the Championship title on a nerve-racking final day of the regular
season.
Wins for another historic club, two-time European champions
Nottingham Forest — 3-0 over Ipswich — and Chinese-owned Birmingham City, who
beat Bristol City 1-0, condemned Rovers, owned by Indian poultry firm Venkys,
to the drop.
Rafael Benitez-managed Newcastle did what they had to do
beating Barnsley 3-0 but it took a howler from Brighton goalkeeper David
Stockdale to ensure they returned to the top flight as champions.
Brighton — who started the day a point ahead of Newcastle —
looked to be heading to a 1-0 win over Aston Villa until Stockdale somehow
failed to prevent Jack Grealish’s long range effort going into the net and the
Seagulls were held 1-1.
Blackburn at least departed with a 3-1 win over Brentford
but that was little consolation as they contemplate League One and third tier
football for the first time since 1980.
“We gave it everything we had today. It is a really disappointed day because we gave it absolutely everything,” Rovers midfielder Jason Lowe told Sky Sports.“We knew if we won today we still didn’t know what it would mean.”
Things had looked extremely rosy for Rovers early on as they
stormed into a 2-0 lead — Scottish international midfielder Charlie Mulgrew’s
goal, a delightful freekick, the pick of the two.
However, by the time Craig Conway converted a late penalty
to make it 3-1 the game was up as Forest and Birmingham were winning.
Forest’s hero was Congolese striker Britt Assombalonga who
set them on their way with a first-half penalty — shortly after a superb save
by their ‘keeper Jordan Smith had kept the scores level — and added his second
and the hosts’ third with an excellent solo effort in the second-half.
That had Forest manager Mark Warburton, who took the job
after an acrimonious departure from Scottish giants Rangers earlier this
season, charging down the touchline fist pumping in celebration.
Birmingham, whose wounds were largely self-inflicted with a
disastrous run under Gianfranco Zola after the owners removed Gary Rowett
despite being just outside the play-offs, scraped the win they needed at the
very least.
A first-half goal by Che Adams — in front of Bristol City’s
biggest crowd for 37 years of more than 25,000 — raised a smile from veteran
caretaker manager Harry Redknapp and sighs of relief from the fans.
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