BLACKBURN very rarely win at Portman Road. But then again Ipswich boss Mick McCarthy has just been named manager of the month, and we all know what that means if the curse is true.

So something is going to have to give on Saturday.

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As a player I knew that if some of my managers were named manager of the month, they would think the next game coming along would be a hairy scary moment for them.

It’s only superstition but football and superstition goes hand in hand for players and managers, whether it be wearing a tracksuit or a suit, or whether it be putting your left boot on before your right.

With the manager of the month award the only thing a manager can do is say to his players, ‘You’ve got me this award by the way you’ve performed, I shouldn’t have to do much of a team talk, just carry on playing the way you have been’.

I’m sure Mick McCarthy will be doing that on Saturday and if his Ipswich players carry on the way they have been, they will feel they have every chance of showing that you don’t always have to lose your next game after your manager gets named the manager of the month.

These things are here to be disproved, and that also goes for Blackburn’s record at Ipswich.

The players in my day who were right into football, watched football all the time, and talked football, tended to understand these things because journalists and television people always seemed to – and still do – come out with stats.

That’s been a big thing for years and years. While we may have not taken it on board straight away, it was only after we lost or didn’t get anything from Ipswich again that I began to think, ‘Why can’t we beat this lot?’ If you look back at history it’s just not happened at Portman Road for Blackburn but, as I say, statistics are there to be disproved.

After a winless run before the international break, there would be no better time to break it.

Don’t get me wrong, a point would be a good result.

Ipswich are doing well, they are in the play-off zone, and a draw would not see them move any further away from us.

But no doubt the teams above and around us will win and that’s why it would be a very good game to take three points from.

Meanwhile, I’m running my G8 Soccer School behind Salesbury Memorial Hall between October 27 and 31 for children aged eight to 13. For more details visit www.g8soccerschool.co.uk