GRAEME Souness prompted a few sharp intakes of breath when he outlined 'survival' as his goal ahead the new campaign.

Surely, after finishing 10th and lifting the Worthington Cup last term, the club should be setting their sights a little bit higher, grumbled the odd dissenter.

But, if fans needed reminding just how difficult it's going to be for Rovers to establish themselves as a top eight force over the next nine months, then it came on the very first weekend.

A quick glance at the results will show that every one of the top six from last season kicked off the new campaign with a victory.

And, of those sides, Chelsea were the only ones to concede a goal.

So anyone harbouring ambitions of breaking that cartel would appear to have their work cut out.

Souness was therefore right to sound a note of caution going into one of the most hotly anticipated seasons for many a year.

Sunderland arrived at Ewood on Saturday as a club in crisis after fans had turned on manager Peter Reid during a turbulent summer.

But somehow the beleaguered Black Cats managed to dig deep and grind out a point with a performance which underlined Souness's argument that there are simply no easy games in the Premiership anymore.

Despite the disappointment of Saturday's result, however, I still believe Rovers fans have every reason to be optimistic about the possibility of pushing for the top 10 again.

In Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke they now possess a genuine goal threat and, providing the standard of the service to them is significantly improved, then they'll take some defences to the cleaners between now and May.

Meanwhile, changing tack completely, I see Manchester United motor-mouth Roy Keane is up to his old antics again this week, this time spouting off about how he snubbed the chance to join Rovers during the early-90s.

Apparently, Keane shook hands on a deal with Kenny Dalglish about a move from Nottingham Forest to Ewood only to change his mind after Sir Alex Ferguson had a quick word in his shell-like.

So much for the old saying 'a gentleman's word is as good as his bond' and all that, then!

But then what more should we expect from a man who has made a career out of stabbing people in the back?

As far as I'm concerned, I'm with Jason McAteer on all this who, when asked if he was planning to buy a copy of Keane's autiobiography, responded: "I'd rather buy a Bob the Builder CD for my two-year-old son."

Now there's a man who talks sense...