FURIOUS Blackburn boss Graeme Souness slammed his players after describing Rovers' 2-0 defeat against Aston Villa as the worst performance during his time at the club.
Souness told his players a few home truths as he kept them locked in the dressing room for a full half hour following the club's fifth home defeat of the season in the Premiership.
The angry Rovers chief accused his side of lacking the passion and aggression necessary to match a Villa side who won away from home in the league for the first time since January thanks to goals from Steffan Moore and Juan Pablo Angel.
"I've been here three and a half years and that was the worst performance by far," said Souness.
"As a paying customer, if you were a Blackburn Rovers supporter then you saw your team play without any passion or aggression, and if you're going to do well at this level then you have to have both of those things.
"We were so off the mark, we got our just desserts in the end.
"We weren't worthy of a point. We were out-played from start to finish and it was a miserable day for everyone connected with this football club."
Souness couldn't put his fingers on exactly why his players were out-fought and out-thought by a Villa side who have struggled in the Premiership themselves this season.
However, he refused to make excuses for a performance that he described as 'unacceptable'.
"I've never had to say this before, but we played without passion and we played without aggression and that's something that I demand from my players wherever I've been and I didn't get that," said Souness.
"If you don't have that then you've got no chance at any level of football and especially the highest.
"It's very, very disappointing and we'll have to come up with the answers.
"The two goals we conceded were very, very disappointing but I can't deny that Villa deserved to win.
"It was like a boxer losing a fight and not throwing any punches.
"Six days ago I watched my team produce one of the best performances in my time at this club but that was the worst, so it shows just how crazy this game can be.
"For whatever reason, we weren't at it and that's unacceptable.
"I've been in this game a long time and I know it's impossible to play well every time you cross that white line but the one thing I should be able to guarantee our supporters is that the team will have a go for them, and I have to hold my hands up and say they didn't get that."
Referring to what was said in the dressing room after the game, Souness insisted he did not fly into a rage with the players but he did spell out exactly what he thought about the performance and stressed the need for an immediate improvement.
"It wasn't a shouting match. I pointed out to them what I felt about the game and what was unacceptable.
"The thing that was unacceptable for me, and for any paying customer who watched the game, was you can't have your team going through the motions but that's what I felt we had.
"Too many people accepted second best on the day. We didn't win enough individual battles and we were second to everything all over the park.
"That's the first time I've said those things about the players I have here.
"Normally, our supporters can go home happy knowing that the players have had a go for them.
"But our supporters would have gone home not just disappointed but angry, and they had every right to be.
"We were dopey in defensive situations and our football was miserable because miserable football to me is the kind of football that doesn't get you on the edge of your seat.
"If I'm supporting my team, I want to be on the edge of my seat and we just didn't do that."
Asked if he could take any positives at all from the performance, Souness added cynically: "I think the pitch held up well in the circumstances."
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