At the end of the 2016/17 season, Blackburn Rovers were facing the prospect of their first season in the third tier in almost four decades. Relegated on goal difference, finishing third-bottom of the Championship standings, boss Tony Mowbray had a task on his hands.

Rovers would be playing in Sky Bet League One in 2017/18 and it was simple: any outcome other than promotion wouldn’t do.

“We had a meeting as a group of players without the manager and just said, ‘we need to put right what happened last year and the only way of doing that is by getting promoted,’” former Blackburn skipper Elliott Bennett, who was a part of the team who went down, explains. “It turned out to feel like the success we had in the promotion season kind of reconnected the fans and the Club.

“Unfortunately, the upturn in form when Tony Mowbray came in was maybe a month too late. The owners made it very clear to the manager and the players that we all had to dig ourselves out of the mess that we got ourselves into by getting relegated. I had a part to play in the Club’s relegation and I felt I owed it to them to put that right.

“Sometimes, as a Club when there’s unrest and things aren’t going well, taking a step back – even when it hurts at the time – can be a good thing. When you have a low like that, it makes the high even greater.”

The players went away and regrouped over the summer and before a ball had even been kicked, Blackburn were christened the League One title favourites.

Things didn’t quite go to plan as the campaign got underway. Mowbray’s men travelled to Southend United in the curtain-raiser where they slipped to a 2-1 loss.

And Rovers were ready to put the result behind them when the visit of newly promoted Doncaster Rovers to Ewood Park in their first home fixture of the season spelled back-to-back defeats.

“We were coming off a loss to Southend which nobody expected, then we got demolished by Doncaster,” Richie Smallwood recalls. “From then on, the pressure at home was even greater because the fans were really expecting us to blow away teams with the squad we had.

“The fans expected it a bit sooner, but we didn’t really click altogether until into a few more games into the season. That’s what happens when you don’t get off to a good start – you have to try and get everyone on board and that wasn’t easy.

“Doncaster came with a little diamond formation and just tortured us. We couldn’t get to grips. We hung on to 0-0 until half time. The game was taken away from us pretty soon after half time. We were chasing the game and just got picked off.”

The tide turned for Blackburn when they travelled to Bradford City next up. A slender 1-0 victory over the Bantams at Valley Parade kickstarted Rovers’ season. Mowbray’s men were off the mark and raring to go.

One of the 17 summer signings who impressed was new recruit Smallwood, who arrived in Lancashire on a free transfer from Rotherham United. The midfielder – the only player to start all 46 league games as Blackburn bounced back at the first time of asking – was an instant hit with the travelling fans in West Yorkshire.

Within a matter of games, Smallwood had his own chant. And so, to the tune of Earth Wind and Fire’s hit ‘September’, the King of Ewood was born.

“I heard it at Southend which was the first game of the season, but we weren’t playing too well so I don’t think they sang it for that long!” he laughs. “In the Bradford game – which was the third game of the season and the second away game – they packed out the stand behind the goal and we ended up winning the game and it was loud and clear.

“From then on, it was one of the fans’ favourite songs and it got sang everywhere. I’ve not really had that anywhere before and it still sticks with me now.”

Over the course of the campaign, Blackburn battled it out for a top six finish at the very least, with a keen eye on the automatic spots. A strong Rovers side filled with individual brilliance and a sense of togetherness and camaraderie went 18 games unbeaten between October and January.

“You are where you are and you deserve to be where you are but as a Club, we knew that was nowhere near good enough,” Bennett continues. “No disrespect to the other teams in the division, but we were the team everyone was gunning for because it’s Blackburn Rovers.

“Some of those players will have grown up watching Blackburn on the telly on Match of the Day with the amount of years they had in the Premier League and winning the Premier League in ’95. For some of the players we came up against, it was a massive game for them. We were the big team in the league. It was something we thrived on.”

Blackburn were in a rich vein of form, none more so than when they hosted fierce promotion rivals Shrewsbury Town mid-way through the first month of 2018.

Rovers were hot on the heels of the Shrews – Bennett’s current employers – with just five points separating Shrewsbury in second and Blackburn occupying third place.

“I can only imagine, had we lost that game, what it would’ve done to us psychologically,” Bennett begins. “It was a three-horse race for the two automatic spots between Wigan, ourselves and Shrewsbury at the time.

“We went on an incredible run, but when we came in, we’d be like ‘I wonder how they got on?’ Up until that point, we’d win and we’d find out Wigan and Shrewsbury had won, and it went around like that for the whole season. It was really tight. We couldn’t pull away, but that game was pivotal.

“We knew it was a massively important game; it was the game we knew we needed to win. We ended up winning 3-1 and from that moment on, the belief within the squad was that we’re going to do this. In that game, we knocked the wind out of Shrewsbury’s sails and came into our own. It gave us a real boost.”

The January transfer window brought in fresh faces – one of which was Newcastle United loanee and Under-20s World Cup winner Adam Armstrong. The striker, who had spent the first half of the season with Bolton Wanderers in the Championship, was reunited with his former boss Mowbray.

The Rovers manager knew what he was capable of, having signed the youngster for Coventry City in League One. Armstrong hit 20 goals for the Sky Blues in 2015/16 and his contribution to Blackburn’s promotion push had the desired effect. He scored nine goals in 21 appearances to get the Club over the line.

“At the time it was very much all about trying to get some experience and more minutes,” Armstrong states. “Bolton was a great experience for me at that age and I learnt a lot during the period of time that I was there for. It was definitely a move that excited me at the time and before I knew it, I was straight into the mix of things there."

“It was a great time to be at the Club at that point, as the feel-good factor was certainly there and everything was positive and heading in the right direction. When all is going right in football, it’s the best feeling as it just feels like everything the team does every week pays off and turns into a win.”

A win against Walsall saw Blackburn usurp Shrewsbury before the undefeated streak came to an end away at Plymouth Argyle. Nevertheless, Rovers picked themselves up after drawing with Oldham the following week.

They couldn’t afford a blip and a 2-1 win over Portsmouth at Fratton Park got them back on track. Armstrong scored both goals in a 2-1 triumph over Pompey, most notably netting a 92^nd minute winner.

“Portsmouth away is always talked about as one of the games which was a real turning point in that particular campaign,” Armstrong remembers. “To come from behind to win the game and score a late winner completely gave the team a new belief – and after that result and the manner of the win, it was almost like the club never looked back after that.

“It’s always one of the best feelings in football when you score a late winner, and more so when you get one away from home. If you’re in front of the away fans going mad also, it makes it even more iconic. That game at Portsmouth always stands out for those reasons.”

Mowbray’s side picked themselves up and embarked on another streak to see them through to that famous evening in South Yorkshire and by the time April rolled around, Blackburn were poised for promotion when they faced off against Doncaster Rovers on a rainy Tuesday evening.

It was worlds away from their last meeting with Doncaster when Rovers were riding out a rocky start at the beginning of the term.

“I felt sick,” Bennett admits. “I love playing matches and I never really get that feeling but before that game, I didn’t want to eat and I felt really nervous. When you get that opportunity, you don’t want to let it slip through your hands.

“The whole away end was sold out. Bradley Dack, who was one of the stars of the season, crossed it in and Charlie Mulgrew, who was captain, scored the goal. Everything was perfect. I’ll always remember that night. In the build-up to it, you know what’s at stake if you win. Once you’ve achieved that, it’s euphoria. It’s a feeling I wish I could bottle up and have every day.”

With 10 minutes left on the clock, Charlie Mulgrew headed in the only goal of the game – and his 14^th of the season, a record for a defender – that clinched promotion back to the Championship.

“We were really good in the first half and we probably should’ve been up at half time, but they defended well as a unit,” Smallwood explains. “In the second half, we found it hard to break them down and we weren’t as fluid as we were in the first half. It was amazing to see that ball go in and realise we were five minutes away from getting the job done.”

“I remember the build-up to that game – it felt like it took forever to arrive,” Armstrong adds. “Travelling to the game, the spirits were so high as you could imagine, as the club had been flying for several months and it just felt like that evening it was destined to happen. After promotion was sealed that night, I just remember it being one big celebration on the pitch with the away end and then afterwards in the dressing room.

“That year was one of the most memorable so far – from winning the U20s World Cup to the highs of winning promotion was just a surreal few months. I just remember it taking a while for it all to sink in, as I was still very young at the time and to experience a few months like that in football was just crazy.

“I was coming off the back of a breakthrough season, was part of a promotion winning team and then also the opportunity play in the Championship.”

After the full-time whistle sounded, the celebrations got underway and a chorus of the King of Ewood rang around in the visitors’ dressing room in recognition of one of their promotion heroes.

Smallwood smiles: “Not just the fans, but the players were singing it as well. On such an important night for the Club, I went into the changing room and heard the lads signing it and I joined in. It’s a memory I’ll never forget. It was a Tuesday night, so the celebrations weren’t too wild afterwards!”

Over 27,000 fans were packed inside Ewood – the place that had become a fortress – for the final time that season. Blackburn edged past Oxford United and the party was well and truly started as they were presented with their runners-up trophy after Wigan Athletic were confirmed as the League One champions.

Rovers finished the season on 96 points - a record tally for the Club, besting the 89 they accumulated in 1994/95 when Blackburn won the Premier League - six points clear of second-placed Shrewsbury, trailing the Latics by just two points. What’s more, the Club’s leading marksman Bradley Dack was named the League One Player of the Season at the EFL Awards, while keeper David Raya, Dack and skipper Mulgrew were named in the divisional Team of the Season.

Almost a year to the day on, Blackburn were sending home thousands of overjoyed supporters who had left bitterly disappointed the season prior. It was mission accomplished for Mowbray.

Smallwood says: “Even in the last game of the season when the promotion was sealed, we were still fighting and trying to win every single game and the manager was still putting out his best team.

“Every season, I want to try and play 46 games and I managed to do that at Blackburn. It was the only time I’ve done that in my career, so it was an important milestone for me personally.

“I was thrilled to be a potential part of that history. It’s a season I look back on as the best season in my career.”