'Horrible to play against' - Ex-Rovers forward reflects on 'wonderful' spell
Former Rovers striker Paul Dickov has reflected on his 'wonderful' spell at the club and the difficult decision to leave.
Dickov headed to Ewood Park in 2004 following spells at Manchester City and Leicester. He went on to score 17 goals in 61 appearances for the club.
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The forward had been excited to work under Graeme Souness in East Lancashire but the manager left early in the 2004/05 campaign to take charge at Newcastle.
Mark Hughes was named as his successor in the dugout following a spell in charge of Wales and his side reached the FA Cup semi-final later that season.
Rovers finished sixth in the Premier League the following year to secure European qualification, although Dickov opted to return to Manchester City at the end of his contract that summer.
'I had a wonderful time there,' he told BestBettingSites.com. 'It was just the relegation clause in my contract at Leicester that said I could leave cheaply if we went down and I'd scored a certain amount of goals.
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'Graeme Souness was the manager who signed me and he was a hero of mine. Then very quickly into my Blackburn career he went to Newcastle and Mark Hughes came in, and we had two wonderful seasons there.
'When Mark came in, we were struggling in the relegation zone. We finished that season in an FA cup semi-final and qualified for Europe.
'European football the following season so it was a great time. I probably would have stayed, it was just a lure of going back to Manchester City at the end of my contract that I couldn't resist.
'But great times. I played with some wonderful players and Mark made us into a really tough, hard-working, hard-to-beat team when he was there.'
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Dickov reckons it was the 'fittest' team he played in, although there was plenty of quality in the squad as well.
'Mark really got the squad to click together. We were probably at that time the most horrible team to play against, when you think with the likes of Lucas Neill, myself, Robbie Savage,' he grinned.
'Then watch the following season because it must have been the smallest, nastiest front two ever with me and Craig Bellamy up front together!
'We didn't give the centre-halves or referees any rest, but with some real quality in there as well.
'You think of Morten Gamst Pedersen and Tugay, who was one of the best players I played with, we had Steven Reid and Brad Friedel in goal. David Bentley came in, Brett Emmerton and we had an unbelievable team spirit.
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'We worked so hard for each other. [It was] probably the fittest I've been, the fittest team I played in as well. I think that showed in the pitch and it showed the success that we had as well.'
Dickov's second spell at City lasted a couple of years, including loans at Crystal Palace and Blackpool.
The forward then returned to Leicester and also had a stint at Leeds before taking charge as player-manager at Oldham.
He spent nearly three years in the hot seat at Boundary Park and also managed Doncaster for a couple of seasons.
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