I WAS a tad uncomfortable to hear the manager singling out Dwight Yorke and Tugay for individual public criticism following Sunday's shambolic last ten minutes.

By all means criticise the team as a whole when things go wrong, and boy did they go wrong!

And tear anyone off a strip in private if need be. However singling out individuals for public criticism is likely to be counterproductive in the long term.

Not that I really blame Souey. Personally I was delighted I had a 24-hour cooling off period before penning the column as my comments when the equaliser went in were unprintable.

Much like the manager's I suspect.

Over the years it seems to have been a peculiar trait of Rovers that we can't seem to play with or against ten men.

Some teams like Manchester United in their prime don't seem to bat an eyelid when reduced to ten. When we're reduced to ten men we usually reshuffle and retreat into our defensive shell barely able to get past the half way line.

Conversely we've often looked comfortable against 11 and unable to cope against ten as was the case on Sunday.

One of life's unsolved mysteries.

Anyhow it's one point out of the last nine now instead of the seven out of nine it should have been.

We all have bad days at the office and I'm afraid I laid the blame for the Chelsea defeat firmly at the manager's door.

We were 2-1 up at half time and coping well. The only problem was that Chelsea had done their homework.

They rightly sussed from the off that the left back position had been our Achilles heel of late. The other three defenders were playing well.

The obvious solution was surely to pack midfield and cut off the supply to Gronkjaer.

The decision to move three out of four defenders around left no-one looking like they knew what they were doing.

So at the end of all that it's just six points from six games, statistically speaking relegation form, and coincidentally the identical haul as at the same stage last year. How does that affect the outlook at this early stage?

The worry is that we've played City and Boro off the park for one point.

If we can't win when we're bang on song how will we fare when we're off the boil? Or if confidence wavers slightly?

Despite this concern, on balance, I take greater comfort from the quality of our performances - the second half against Chelsea excepted.

We made Boro and City look embarrassingly third rate for 90 and 70 minutes respectively.

Neither side have acquitted themselves badly this season and City comfortably disposed of Newcastle and Everton at home.

Therefore if we can maintain a similar performance level the results should surely follow.