In seventh heaven!

Dunn was quite simply Sven-sational as rampaging Rovers hammered sorry West Ham to heap further misery on troubled manager Glenn Roeder.

Desperate to unearth a player capable of solving England's problems on the left, Eriksson recently called up West Ham's Trevor Sinclair as a possible solution to a conundrum which stumped his two predecessors.

But, by the time it came to vacating his seat in the Ewood directors box at the end of a breathtaking afternoon, it was Dunn who looked the man capable of coming to his international rescue after a dazzling display in an unfamiliar role.

Souness deliberately tends to tone down the praise when it comes to talking about his young players in a concerted effort to keep their feet firmly on terra firma.

But even he was in raptures after Dunn produced a performance which oozed class as Rovers romped to their biggest victory of the season.

"David really is as exciting as any midfield player in the final third -- in fact I'd say he's Gascoigne-ish and he'll probably be very pleased I've said that because I think he's his hero.

"However, outside that last third he's still learning the game.

"Where we asked him to play today he's got to learn to do a defensive job as well and he didn't do that particularly well.

"But, certainly, going forward when he gets the ball I think he has you on the edge of your seats."

Dunn might have been the one who caught the eye, particularly after scoring a stunning 30-yarder which saw Ewood erupt to salute a moment of pure magic.

But skipper Garry Flitcroft also pressed his own claims for an international call-up with an awesome performance in midfield.

The former Manchester City ace is currently in the form of his life and Souness for one is in no doubt that his captain fantastic could do a similar job for his country.

"If you've got one Garry Flitcroft in your dressing room then you're a very lucky manager," said Souness.

"I don't have to do anything, I don't have to bark at anyone, because he does it all for me.

"He's been an exceptional captain in all the time I've been at the club."

Rovers once beat West Ham 8-2 at Upton Park back in the sixties which prompted a famous cartoon depicting a programme seller standing outside Ewood shouting 'Scorecards' ahead of the return fixture later that season.

But a scorecard would have come in handy as the goals rained in with embarrassing ease as the Hammers were buried under a second half avalanche.

How Rovers fans must wish they could play a team in claret and blue every week!

After sticking five past Burnley last season, they went two better here on the way to their biggest victory since they made April fools of the Clarets.

No wonder cheeky chants of 'Are you Burnley in disguise?' floated down off the Blackburn End as gloating Rovers fans basked in the October sun.

Before yesterday, Rovers had registered just eight goals all season prompting Souness to bemoan his side's lack of a killer instinct.

But suddenly everything gloriously fell into place as Dunn and Co mercilessly put the Hammers to the sword in quite magnificent style.

West Ham -- for their part -- were atrocious at the back and their ramshackle defence looked as though they had never met before.

On paper, Roeder appears to have the makings of a decent side in the likes of Paolo Di Canio, Freddie Kanoute and Michael Carrick.

However, for whatever reason, the sum of the parts just doesn't add up to the whole.

And, if the former Burnley assistant doesn't come up with the answers soon, he could find himself behind Peter Taylor in the dole queue.

The sending off of Thomas Repka -- a harsh decision in my book -- did nothing to help their cause and Roeder will also point to a second half miss from Sinclair which could have seen them pull it back to 3-2.

But that would only serve to paper over the cracks because West Ham are a side heading for the First Division after shipping 12 goals on their last two outings.

With their 5-0 thrashing at Everton still fresh in the memory, Hammers fans must have feared the worse as they watched Rovers race into a 3-0 lead inside the opening 28 minutes.

Flitcroft set the ball rolling when he pinched the ball off Christian Dailly -- or should that be Dally? -- on the edge of the box in the 18th minute.

The impressive Ciccio Grabbi then did brilliantly to work enough space for a return cross which the Ewood skipper gleefully headed past a startled Shaka Hislop to open the floodgates.

That was merely an aperitif compared to the second nine minutes later.

Henning Berg's searching pass found Dunn fully 30 yards out who sized up his options before curling an unstoppable right-footer high into Hislop's top left-hand corner.

Damien Johnson then made it 3-0 from close range sixty seconds later after Grabbi's neat knock-down before Carrick handed the Hammers a brief lifeline with a daisycutter from 20 yards on 39 minutes.

Any hopes of a comeback disappeared, however, when Sinclair and Kanoute both missed golden chances in a five minute purple patch after the break.

Once Repka saw red for a second bookable offence in the 60th minute, it then became an exercise in damage limitation.

But things went from bad to worse three minutes later as the hapless Grant McCann sliced a Tugay shot past his own keeper.

With the scent of blood now in their nostrils, Rovers went for the jugular in the final 15 minutes.

Flitcroft, Dunn and Matt Jansen were all denied by Hislop before Tugay made it five on 80 minutes with a rasping 25 yarder.

Two minutes later, Jansen then iced the cake with number six after Dunn's shot had been parried.

And, with the Hammers defence now falling apart at the seams, supersub Craig Hignett could have helped himself to a late hat-trick before finally adding the seventh in the dying seconds. RESULT: ROVERS...7 WEST HAM...1

Scorers: Flitcroft 18, Dunn 27, Johnson 28, McCann (og) 63, Tugay 80, Jansen 82, Hignett 90

Scorer: Carrick 39