GRIMSBY boss Alan Buckley believes his side are now safe from relegation but admitted they had been forced to pull out all the stops just to compete on the same level as Rovers, writes Peter White.

But Tony Parkes, in charge during Graeme Souness's absence, has seen this kind of display so many times before and knows Rovers must improve on it by next season.

"It was very hard work for us and a very hard-fought point," said a relieved Buckley.

"On paper you look at Blackburn and they are terrific. They have talent in abundance and our lads had to work so very hard just to bridge that gap.

"We rode our luck a bit towards the end when they looked as though they might nick it and Danny (Coyne) kept us in the game.

"With all the problems our players have had this season, I think they have been fantastic." Parkes, however, had every right to be rather more disappointed with the end product from Rovers who dominated yet once again failed to cash in.

"I thought we battled hard, though there wasn't a lot of quality at times from us," he said.

"We had the better chances but it was probably a fair result at the end of the day.

"The players worked hard and we huffed and puffed a little bit with two or three good chances right at the death.

"But I think the thing to say is that it was a battling performance and the best thing about it was that we got a clean sheet.

"Really, if we had played better we should have won. I thought they were there to be beaten and we just didn't have enough quality to see them off.

""It's not just happened at Grimsby, it's happened at places like Walsall and Swindon too."