THERE'S no doubt about it, the defending against Bolton on Saturday was scary -- but the really frightening thing was the contribution of the strikers.

I don't like to criticise players, but after Paul Gallagher went off and I saw Cole and Yorke as the front pair I thought, 'they're not going to chase anything.'

To be fair, Gallagher wasn't having a particularly good game, while Andy and Dwight had both scored for the second game running. But the fact was, they were not going to work to stop their back four from bringing the ball out in the way Gallagher worked his socks off hunting them down.

For Cole and Yorke, that might not be their game, but in the situation Rovers are in you need everyone to pull together. They are paid a lot of money and all you ask for is for people to work hard.

You can forgive anyone for having a bad game but it must be hard for the manager and the fans to look out and see people on the pitch who are being lazy.

It's about putting the work in and they should be disappointed with their work rate. If they don't want to do it they should do the honourable thing and leave.

You could accept it if the guys were getting 30 goals a season but they don't, particularly Dwight. Since Cole came in, in the first season he kept us up with nine goals in 15 games and won us the Worthington Cup. He had a bad year last season but he always looks like he can get a goal.

So of the two I would keep him, because he is too similar to Yorke and, while you can afford one at Rovers, I don't think you can afford both.

It might be academic, but Chris Sutton is a name that's been linked with Rovers in the transfer window and we'd be better off with someone like him, who works hard, plays in different positions and scores goals.

While we're looking at options for Rovers, another former Ewood Premiership winner, Jason Wilcox, springs to mind.

He is in the doldrums at Leeds and he is a left-sided player, at a time when they are at a premium. He might not be the most obvious answer to Blackburn's problems but I bet he would love the chance to come back and help his former club. He would give it everything he's got.

If not, then it must be very frustrating for Graeme Souness as he tries to work out what to do next with the lads he's got. In fact, he must be looking at the team and thinking, 'where do I start?' and that's not good.

The system he played on Saturday, with Yorke in the hole behind the front two, worked well and he looked a better player in that position.

But Saturday's game was difficult to judge anything on because Bolton were rubbish and it was just a case of whenever a team attacked they were going to score.

Rovers conceded four awful goals and although Andy Todd and Craig Short were out, we're at the stage where results are everything because nobody is ever too good to go down.

You can see the mood about the place in the amount of people who are leaving early because there have been miles too many home defeats and the fans haven't got the optimism to think that their team can lift themselves to get back in the game.

But, looking ahead to Manchester City, hopefully Garry Flitcroft will be back in the side to face his former club because we need to have real grafters - not more spectators.