Dopes go up in smoke

And who, quite frankly, can blame him after Rovers somehow conspired to shoot themselves in the foot.

The hard work had been done. Manchester City's fire had been extinguished. And all that was left to do was the damping down, the snuffing out of the last, few, remaining embers.

Souness could have been forgiven for lighting up a Hamlet and reclining in the autumnal sunshine as he basked in the glow of a second vital away win.

But, suddenly, that vision of Utopia went up in smoke as Kevin Keegan's Blues plucked a point from the ashes.

Who said there was no such thing as internal combustion?

For the third successive time, Rovers were the masters of their own downfall -- just as they had been against Middlesbrough and Chelsea.

And their manager was at a loss to explain just where it had all gone wrong after watching his team snatch a draw from the jaws of victory.

It was enough to drive a man to drink.

"It's very hard for me to take anything home to smile about because the overriding thing is we've blown two points, which is very frustrating, in a way which could have been avoided with a bit more concentration at vital times," blasted Souness.

"It wasn't through any brilliance by them. It was dopiness by us.

"You have team meetings where you talk to players and you look for feed back and when they start talking about football you think maybe some of them know something about the game.

"But the last 10 minutes of that game has made me think otherwise."

Lackadaisical. Unprofessional. Or downright irresponsible. Take your pick.

But whatever adjective you choose to describe what happened in the last 10 minutes, the one firm conclusion that can be made is it was simply inexcusable to toss away two points in such a hap-hazard manner.

Trailing 2-0 and down to 10-men, there appeared to be no way back for a City side who had spent the previous 79 minutes flattering to deceive.

All Rovers had to do was retain possession and wind down the clock.

Instead, however, they started to give the ball away with alarmingly regularity and City needed no second invitation to seize the offer of a lifeline.

First, Nicolas Anelka gave them hope with his fifth goal in three games 10 minutes from time to set-up a grandstand finish.

Then, Shaun Goater hungrily devoured another gift in the dying seconds and the Blues' recovery was complete.

A relieved Kevin Keegan could hardly believe his luck afterwards but he made no apologies for accepting such charity.

"Their inability to keep the ball when they had an extra man cost them dearly at the end of the day.

"But I've no sympathy for Graeme because it's dog-eat-dog here," said the former England boss.

Earlier, Keegan had twitched agitatedly in the home dug-out as goals from David Thompson and Andy Cole had put Rovers in a seemingly unassailable position.

Then Danny Tiatto committed football's equivalent of hari-kari with a vicious two-footed lunge which nearly cut Thompson off at the knee.

Referee Mike Dean had no option but to produce the red card for an act of shameful stupidity.

And Keegan, to his great credit, was scathing in his criticism of the Aussie afterwards, instead of claiming he hadn't seen the incident as some of his managerial counterparts often do.

"I've no qualms over the sending off and I'll fine him the maximum I can," said the Maine Road chief.

"I was disgusted with it and it was so unprofessional and so stupid, you shouldn't really give it any column space."

It had all started so brightly for the visitors.

With Garry Flitcroft and David Dunn taking command in the centre, it was Rovers who called the shots for most of the first half as Ali Benarbia and Eyal Berkovic struggled to stamp their usual authority in midfield.

Thompson -- who twinkled again -- and Keith Gillespie looked to exploit the space behind City wing-backs Shaun Wright-Phillips and Niclas Jensen at every opportunity.

And with Dwight Yorke holding the ball up superbly upfront, that gave them the platform to launch a series of dangerous raids.

Ironically, though, it was a mistake rather than slick attacking play which led to the opening goal in the 26th minute.

Marc-Vivien Foe's casual ball out to the right was intercepted by Thompson who then cut in before hammering a brilliant right-foot strike past Peter Schmeichel from 20 yards for his second goal in as many games.

That stung City into life as Anelka and the inventive Berkovic both went close but all three points appeared to be heading for Ewood when Rovers doubled their advantage nine minutes after the break.

Once again, City committed defensive suicide when Wright-Phillips gave the ball straight to Craig Short 30 yards out who in turn fed Thompson.

His first time pass then released Cole who steadied himself before slotting his first goal of the season under former Manchester United team-mate Peter Schmeichel.

When Tiatto deservedly saw red just six minutes after coming on as a sub, there appeared to be no way back.

Schmeichel saved from Yorke, Thompson and Henning Berg in the space of four breathless minutes as Rovers went in search of more goals.

But the home fans were given a glimmer of hope in the 80th minute when Benarbia and Berkovic combined brilliantly to set up an opening for Anelka who squeezed a shot past Friedel.

Surely, that was merely a consolation?

Suddenly, Rovers completely lost the plot and invited trouble by needlessly conceding possession in schoolboy fashion with substitutes Ciccio Grabbi and Tugay among the chief culprits.

With the clock showing 90 minutes, disaster struck.

Berkovic sent Sylvain Distin galloping away down the left with a peach of a pass and the Frenchman kept his composure to pick out Goater with a clever pull-back who gleefully dispatched the equaliser.

Souness was livid. Just who'd be a manager?

MANCHESTER CITY 2 ROVERS 2

Anelka 80, Goater 90; Thompson 26, Cole 54

Attendance...34,130