IN January 2003, Gerard Houllier invented the ‘blip’. With incredible nonchalance (it’s French for ‘couldn’t care less’) he came up with a word for turning an ignominious exit from Europe and 10 league games without a win into the merest trifle.

ONE spends much of any season these days complaining about the grim plastic fraud of the modern game but every now and then you get an afternoon like last Saturday to keep you hooked nonetheless. Ewood Park was everything you want the football experience to be about: a fittingly throbbing start to what could be the best Red week of the century.