GRAEME Souness has had to cope with his fair share of personal trauma during his professional career.

As manager of Liverpool in the early nineties, the robust Scot faced a fight for life itself as he lay in a hospital bed recovering from life-threatening heart surgery.

Now Blackburn Rovers find themselves staring into the football equivalent of the abyss after West Ham sent them crashing to a ninth defeat in 11 league outings.

But if anyone knows what it takes to survive then it's Souness who's determined to lead Rovers out of their biggest crisis since he took charge at Ewood nearly two years ago.

A haul of just 13 points from the last 48 since the 7-1 mauling of the Hammers in October underlines the alarming scale of Rovers' dramatic fall from grace.

But Souness has never before experienced the bitter taste of relegation as either a player or a manager.

And he has no intention of sampling that now, even if goals from West Ham's Trevor Sinclair and Fredi Kanoute plunged his side deep into trouble at the foot of the Premiership.

"I've never been in this situation before but I've won bigger battles than this in my life and I'm determined to win this one," vowed a defiant Souness.

"It's in situations like this that you start to find out about yourself and the people around you. And I've had to handle situations more difficult than this outside of football so I feel I'm equipped to deal with the situation we find ourselves in now.

"We feel our football is still good enough to get us better results than we are currently getting.

"Yes, we are naive because we've got some young players in the team and we're not strong enough in certain areas, but then I think every manager in the country would probably say that.

"At the end of the day, though, we know where we've got to improve and that's what we will be concentrating on doing."

How times have changed!

When the Hammers were so publicly humiliated at Ewood 14 weeks ago, Rovers were eighth in the table and dreaming of Europe rather than looking nervously over their shoulders at the teams scrapping for survival below them.

At that stage, West Ham were down amongst the dead men with just one win to their credit and manager Glenn Roeder on skid row.

Now those roles are reversed with Rovers teetering just a place above the dropzone by virtue of goal difference while the Londoners enjoy the relative comfort of 11th place in the table.

So just where has it all gone horribly wrong?

During the first third of the season, one of the key factors in Rovers' solid start to the campaign was their defensive stability, a quality which saw them lose just three of their opening 14 league games.

Yes, they were still attractive to watch but, first and foremost, they were a difficult side to beat -- a characteristic they need to rediscover quickly if they plan to steer clear of trouble.

At present, Martin Taylor and Nils-Eric Johansson currently occupy the shirts at the centre of defence and I agree with the manager one hundred per cent when he says that both have a massive future in the game.

But what's needed right now is experience and Craig Short and Henning Berg must return with immediate effect to shore up a back four which is guilty of leaking too many soft goals.

Sinclair and Kanoute both pierced a flimsy rearguard with alarming ease to leave themselves one-on-one with Brad Friedel.

And had Paolo Di Canio and Kanoute showed a steadier aim from two similar inviting opportunities, the damage could have been even worse.

But, ultimately, defending is the responsibility of the whole team, and the outstanding Damien Duff apart, Rovers' midfield simply has not provided the back four with the necessary protection since Christmas.

So the sooner they get back to the business of keeping clean sheets, the better, because in Matt Jansen and Andy Cole, Rovers now possess a strikeforce capable of nicking a goal at the opposite end.

But for the agility of England keeper David James, Jansen would have have done exactly that here at a time when they had the Hammers on the rack.

Instead, however, it was Kanoute who grabbed the all-important second goal of the game to hammer another nail in the visitors' coffin.

"Had Matt's chance gone in, the game might have been different," pondered Souness later.

"But it was the first goal which ultimately killed us and that was a bad goal to give away from our point of view."

Desperate for revenge after that 7-1 drubbing, the Hammers were fired up from the off and they forced Rovers onto the back foot from virtually the opening whistle.

A raking cross from the boot of Di Canio just evaded the lunge of Kanoute.

And the fiery Italian then fluffed a golden chance to put the home side ahead in the 16th minute when he somehow contrived to head wide from a Steve Lomas centre with only Friedel to beat.

However, Rovers' reprieve was to last barely a minute.

Kanoute bought himself a yard courtesy of some mesmerising footwork on the halfway line before releasing Sinclair who strode forward with purpose, expertly rounded Stig Bjornebye and thumped a right-foot drive beyond Friedel from 16 yards.

Things could have gone from bad to worse when Lomas then volleyed straight at Friedel.

But, as the half wore on, Rovers began to create a couple of chances of their own.

Andy Cole saw a header flash wide from a Craig Hignett corner and Duff stung the hands of James with a rasping low drive.

Cole then toe-poked another effort wide of the upright at full stretch after more clever prompting from Tugay and Hignett after the break.

But the game's real turning point came in the 51st minute.

Duff, in space on the left, curled an exquisite cross into Jansen at the near post who flicked the ball goalwards only to see James somehow thrust out a hand and tip his effort onto the post.

That was a let-off and the Hammers then rubbed salt in the wounds by scoring a second themselves four minutes later.

Di Canio picked out the run of Kanoute with a peach of a pass from the left and the Frenchman raced through the centre unchecked to slot the coolest of finishes beyond Friedel after the Rovers defence had gone AWOL.

In a vain attempt to salvage some pride, Jansen prodded a further effort wide and James saved again from Cole.

But there was to be no miracle comeback as the Hammers vanquished the memories from October 14 with a swagger.

WEST HAM...2

Scorers: Sinclair 17, Kanoute 56

ROVERS...0

Attendance...35,307