It's second serve for Blackburn in a week when rain stopped play.

Last week up home in Lancashire, while we were having sort of an Indian summer down here, Blackburn Rovers must have thought they'd been taken back in time to a pre-season London. Just as happens at Wimbledon so often in early July, rain stopped play at Ewood Park when they were agonisingly close to beating Ipswich 1-0.

The Wimbledon we are talking about here is of course the tennis version played by Bjorn Borg, arguably our greatest celebrity sporting supporter, and not the club managed by former and forever Charlton favourite Johnnie Jackson. However in a week when Blackburn visit Greenwich, the home of time, it's interesting to think that exactly 40 years ago, Charlton, Wimbledon and Blackburn were all together in the Championship in the 1985/86 season. The two London clubs were automatically promoted whilst Blackburn narrowly avoided relegation.

This time round both ourselves and the Dons would be thrilled at the same outcome, with a certain tennis legend watching us achieve that feat too but Blackburn will be hoping for more than hanging onto Championship survival by their coat tails. They have been oddly inconsistent though over the past couple of seasons, narrowly missing out on relegation in 2023/24 before almost making the play-offs in 2024/25.

Things have been dramatic off the pitch too, under the ownership of Venkys, an Indian poultry company for whom the fan base probably hopes the “chickens come home to roost” sooner rather than later. For a team that won the Premier League just over 30 years ago, in the golden age of Jack Walker and Alan Shearer, these years must feel very lean under Venkys.

We know that feeling from bygone days. Many of us will remember the angry protests outside the boardroom when we played Rovers in January 2016. Yet those dark blue winter evenings, as in the picture above, seem long gone and the ball's much more in our manager's court these days as he builds a team in his image rather than at the whims of owners who want to operate on “chicken feed”.

Right now the mood at Charlton is far more upbeat than at Blackburn. That late winner at Sheffield United last week has left us positioned very healthily in a League that's spluttering so far rather than racing to life. Middlesbrough find themselves in pole position with a cluster of clubs two points apart between second and ninth. We are in twelfth place on eight points but only one win separates us from Bristol City in third. Blackburn in eighteenth are a mere two points behind with a game in hand. Last weekend's results suggest that on their day, everyone can beat everyone and it is already shaping into a season that's determined to prove the £200 million promotion battle in this division is always one of the closest not just in this country but the world's leagues.

So what can we expect from a Blackburn team heading south at the weekend, seeking to spark their season to life?

Rovers' manager Valerian Ismael values many of the same things as Nathan Jones: intense, high-pressing football without much desire to have possession for possession's sake. Blackburn have been better on the road where there is less pressure to keep the ball, with their only points coming on the road from wins against Hull and Watford. They will be happy to break quickly when Charlton attacks falter and Jones, Bell and either Ramsay or Burke will need to be on their toes. Conor Coventry will be on a man marking mission to keep attacking lynchpin Todd Cantwell quiet. Nathan Jones' physical style of play could provide the platform for victory against an inexperienced Blackburn side.

Nathan Jones can't wait:

"We love playing back at The Valley. The crowd is fantastic and so is the atmosphere. Matchdays are real occasions now and something we always look forward to."