Charlton Athletic arrive at Ewood Park on Sunday knowing points are crucial.

This is our first away fixture of 2026, the first away game of a new quarter century, and it comes at a point where we really need to be crossing back over the Pennines with points in the bag.

We are now past the halfway mark of the Championship campaign, a quarter of the way through the 21st century and strangely the two time periods have unsettling echoes of how they have developed. After a bright start, we have seen a dip in the middle that leaves us looking over our shoulders at an unwanted, and probably unwarranted, return to League One.

The 2000–01 campaign began with momentum and belief. Alan Curbishley’s side hit the ground running, stormed the First Division, and reclaimed their place in the FA Carling Premiership at the first time of asking. It felt decisive, purposeful, almost inevitable. Fast forward a quarter century and this season opened with a similarly neat sense of promise: a 1–0 win over Watford on the opening day, tidy, controlled, and suggestive of a side that knew exactly where it was heading.

Since then, however, the fizz has gradually escaped. That is not to say the season has collapsed—far from it—but the early effervescence has been replaced by something flatter, more honest, and perhaps more instructive. Recent form has offered a sobering reminder of what survival in this division actually demands: depth, resilience, and the ability to grind out or hold onto results, right up to the last seconds of matches.

The emphatic 3–0 win over Blackburn at The Valley at the end of September now feels like a different chapter altogether. Yet there is still room for optimism because football seasons, like centuries, often produce the unexpected. If this campaign is to act as a microcosm of the quarter century just passed, it is worth remembering how the last one ended. The 2024–25 season finished with a bang, courtesy of that play-off final victory over Leyton Orient.

Blackburn Rovers, meanwhile, provide fitting opposition for a time when points are badly needed. Their own season has been a stop-start affair, full of frustration, disruption, and fleeting promise. Last season, they finished seventh, just two points short of Bristol City and a play-off place. This term they lost seven of their first ten games but recovered with away wins at Leicester, Bristol City and Preston in November. Since then, however, they have won only once in nine games and, after their home defeat to Wrexham on New Year's Day, they find themselves below us in the table.  The fact that on the same day we drew with leaders Coventry gives us real hope of taking something from this trip. In fact Blackburn's home record should give us plenty of optimism. Birmingham, Swansea, Norwich, Sheffield United, Derby and QPR have, in addition to Wrexham, all won at Ewood Park this season. Only Southampton and Millwall have been beaten.

Blackburn though will be tough physical opponents and, just like us, looking over their shoulders at a resurgent Norwich City and, because of Norwich's rise, neither team is likely to settle for a point. Both will be looking for all three points to try and get away from the pack of clubs from Sheffield United in 18th down to Oxford United in 23rd who are all at risk of being dragged into a relegation dogfight. Hopefully the draw against Coventry will give us the belief we need to scrap our way out of the fight and get a bit of momentum and upwards motion at the start of this New Year.