The Simon Garner column

IN A week that's been dominated by stories of Dwight Yorke's stormy return to Ewood Park, it's Andy Cole who now stands in the way of Blackburn Rovers' second win of the season.

And you can bet your bottom dollar the former Manchester United striker will be fired up and ready to prove a point against his former club tomorrow.

I've got to admit I was disappointed to see Cole leave for Fulham in the summer.

For all his faults, he was the most natural goalscorer we had on the books and the club have never properly replaced him.

Don't get me wrong, I think Paul Dickov has done an excellent job in the short time he's been at Blackburn but even Paul himself will probably admit he's never been an out and out goalscorer in the Andy Cole mould.

When Andy first signed from United, he was dynamite up front for Rovers and his goals not only saved the club from relegation that season, they also helped to deliver the Worthington Cup.

But then cracks began to develop in his relationship with Graeme Souness and we rarely saw the best of him after that.

In the end, things got so bad it came to a straight choice between Andy and Graeme and the board decided to back the manager.

But they might have acted differently had they known that Souness was about to up and leave for Newcastle anyway only a matter of weeks later.

We'd certainly stand a better chance of staying up if Andy Cole was still on the books.

Natural goalscorers with his experience are few and far between and if you do decide to dispense with one then it's vital you have another lined up to take his place.

Sadly, that wasn't the case when Souness sanctioned Cole's move to Fulham and now Hughes is the man left picking up the pieces.

Let's just hope he doesn't give us all a reminder of his goalscoring abilities tomorrow.