Coventry City handed unexpected edge at Blackburn Rovers? Ex-Boro star reveals Ewood Park quirk | OneFootball

The former defender has been speaking ahead of the crunch clash.

While Coventry City would have loved to clinch promotion to the Premier League on home soil, they would surely settle for getting over the line at Ewood Park on Friday night.

Frank Lampard's side have been the runaway leaders in the Championship, and while they did have a blip earlier in the campaign, it feels only a matter of time until they get over the line.

Typically, away trips are supposed to be tricky, playing on an unfamiliar pitch inside a cauldron of noise, and while there may be plenty of noise, it is unlikely to come from the home fans.

Indeed, former Middlesbrough man Tommy Smith has opened up on playing at Blackburn Rovers in recent years and revealed an intriguing factor that should play into the Sky Blues' favour.

Tommy Smith opens up on Ewood Park away ticket allocation

Having amassed over 350 appearances across his career, including spells at Boro, Stoke City and Huddersfield Town, it would be fair to say that Smith has visited a substantial number of grounds in the EFL.

Now working as a pundit, the retired defender has been previewing Coventry's headline clash with Blackburn on Friday night, and has shared some interesting insights into Ewood Park.

Speaking on Sky Sports' Essentially EFL podcast, he said, "I don’t know if you’ve been to Ewood Park in recent times, but for some reason, don’t know what it is, but Ewood Park always seems to give the away side a huge allocation of tickets.

"I don’t know whether you’ve seen that on the telly or whatever, but for the latter stages of my career, we always used to get a massive allowance of tickets at Blackburn, I’m talking like 6–7,000 we had at Middlesbrough.

"So I imagine I could be wrong. I imagine on Friday night that the away end at Ewood will be absolutely packed to the rafters.

"If you were giving me the option of what you said there about potentially winning away from home and winning the league there, or winning when you’re not even playing, I’d much rather win on Friday night under the lights on the television at Ewood Park, make no mistake about that.”

What do the numbers say about Blackburn Rovers' ticket allocations?

In the not-too-distant past, Blackburn were one of the most successful clubs in English football, having lifted the Premier League trophy in the 1994-95 season and the EFL Cup in 2001-02.

However, after their relegation in 2012, the Lancashire club have struggled, as they were again relegated to League One in 2018 and have yet to achieve a top-six finish in the Championship since their downfall.

According to Transfermarkt, Rovers have one of the lowest average attendances in the second tier at 14,559 despite Ewood Park's capacity of 31,367.

This means that Blackburn are only filling 46% of their stadium, which again ranks them towards the bottom of the pile.

West Brom over 7,000 tickets for their Easter Monday trip.

While there are no figures available yet for Coventry's allocation, it would be safe to assume that they will be bringing a hefty number of supporters to watch their potential promotion to the Premier League.

Of course, everybody knows that success brings support, but the situation is not ideal for Blackburn, and, in turn, it should hand Lampard's side the title on Friday night.