History of Blackburn Rovers F.C.

Boards were placed around the pitch to help prevent a repeat of the crowd troubles with Darwen, and a large ornate entrance arch was erected bearing the name of the club and ground.

With the introduction of professional players, it seemed natural that better organisation should be brought to the complex and chaotic system of friendly and competitive matches prevalent at the time.

When the league resumed after World War II, Blackburn Rovers were relegated in their second season (1947–48) and remained in the second division for the following ten years.

During this time, they seldom made a serious challenge for a major trophy – although they did reach the 1960 FA Cup final when managed by Scot Dally Duncan.

Relegation in 1979 was followed by instant promotion under new player-manager Howard Kendall, who later managed Everton to silverware including two league titles.

By this stage, the club had started to receive funding from local steel baron Jack Walker, whose financial support had enabled the construction of a new stand at Ewood Park as well as several new signings.

[citation needed] Rovers made headlines in the summer of 1992 by paying an English record fee of £3.6million for the Southampton and England centre forward Alan Shearer.

Rovers broke the English transfer fee record again in the summer of 1994 when paying Norwich City £5million for 21-year-old striker Chris Sutton.

Kenny Dalglish moved upstairs to the position of Director of Football soon after the title triumph, and was succeeded as manager by his assistant Ray Harford, who guided Blackburn to a seventh place finish in 1996.

Tony Parkes once again took temporary charge of the Blackburn first team, spending four months at the helm this time, before Graeme Souness accepted the offer to manage the club in March 2000.

Blackburn peaked during the first decade of the 21st century by finishing sixth in the Premier League under Graeme Souness in 2003 and again in 2006 under his successor Mark Hughes.

After qualifying for Europe, Rovers signed South African striker Benni McCarthy from FC Porto as a replacement for the departed Craig Bellamy.

The club was busy during the January transfer window, signing David Dunn, Stephen Warnock, Christopher Samba and Bruno Berner.

Rovers were never at any stage during the season outside the top ten and made their best start to a campaign for 10 years and Santa Cruz brilliantly shone scoring 23 goals in all competitions.

[5] On 22 June 2008, it was announced by the club that Paul Ince had been brought in to manage Rovers after Mark Hughes left, signing a three-year deal.

[9] The new owners immediately sacked manager Sam Allardyce and replaced him with first-team coach Steve Kean, initially on a temporary basis, but by January 2011 he had been awarded a full-time contract until June 2013.

[10][11] Kean's appointment was shrouded in a great deal of controversy since his agent Jerome Anderson had earlier played a major role in advising Venky's during the takeover of the club in the preceding months.

[15] On 7 May 2012, the club was relegated to the Championship after being defeated at home by Wigan Athletic in the penultimate game of the season, ending eleven years in the Premier League.