Ewood Eye, with Nick Smith. . .

THREE more wins from seven games - that's the target Graeme Souness has set his players to keep their heads above water and stay afloat.

But in the choppy seas of the Premiership, a rough ride is always guaranteed when everyone scraps for those precious end-of-season points.

Which is why it's impossible to pick and choose which games you're going to get them from.

However, we're now at the inevitable stage of the season where the fixture lists have been thrown away and we've memorised the remaining games in our heads.

So it's time to indulge in that favourite supporters' pastime - trying to figure out where the points will be picked up.

Unfortunately, this means you also have to work out where the points won't come from - a depressing task at times, but even more so when it seems to rub off on the players.

With 11 games left, most Rovers fans probably scanned the remaining fixtures to identify where the most likely source of points would be, and said 'Arsenal at home - forget that one. Liverpool away - no points there'.

While there was certainly no guarantee of these predictions coming true when the unbeaten Gunners struggled to break through at Ewood last month, the supporters were spot on at Anfield on Sunday.

So, in a sense, nothing ventured, nothing lost. Of the points Blackburn needed, none were ever going to arrive on Sunday anyway.

It's a dangerous attitude with only eight games to play and it's too late for the team to go into games with a similar mindset.

The harrowing opening 24 minutes at Anfield seemed to suggest that the players themselves had almost written this one off and had supposedly 'easier' games on their minds.

But this budgeting of points is all very well if you also pick them up when you're supposed to, and as Portsmouth proved last week, this is never guaranteed.

I can just hear the next set of guestimates circling the pubs and offices of Blackburn now - 'Leeds home, should win, Leicester home, should win. Man United home, no chance.'

But the truth is no games should be written off. Two victories in the four Premiership matches between now and United's visit on May 1 will set that fixture up as the third victory Rovers need to achieve their manager's survival target.

In fact it will be the perfect time to lose any thoughts that this is three points Rovers shouldn't be banking on.

Because if wins are needed, then every game has to be considered winnable. There's little choice in the matter now.

After all, their visitors will have on eye on a cup final and they will almost certainly be out of the title race by then.

And I know, because I've worked it out by looking at their remaining fixtures!