A fan's-eye view from Ewood Park, with Phil Lloyd

IF A week is a long time in politics, as someone once famously said, then a month can be a lifetime in football.

One month ago to this day, Rovers had just tamed the Terriers from Huddersfield with more than a degree of comfort.

We nestled comfortably into seventh place with our eyes, our aspirations, our expectations all fixed firmly upwards. Little could we have known that the highlight of the next month's League programme would be finding who'd won the weekly dressing room raffle to wear the captain's armband (I assume that's how it's decided these days).

The net result is that the fans' tolerance is thoroughly exhausted and increasingly people are muttering that, unless things change radically, there's more chance of them buying a season ticket to watch Albion Rovers than Blackburn Rovers next time around.

Others, those who might be termed 'blind optimists', point out (rightly) that Rovers can still make the play-offs.

Evidence to support this view was, however, pitifully thin in Saturday's Swindon shambles. My seat is directly opposite Jack Walker's box and it couldn't have looked any better from his vantage point. Worse, if anything.

So I found myself musing on what might be going through Jack's mind just now.

Maybe he's wondering how we've managed to assemble the worst Rovers team (according to the League tables) for over a decade. How our attack, expensively put together with supposedly proven goalscorers, could be inept beyond belief against the leakiest defence Division One has to offer.

How, perhaps, the appointment of a locum now does not look the wisest move when major surgery is clearly needed on a very sick patient. How we can have such a marvellous production line of young colts, thanks to Jack's investment, and yet field a side overburdened with carthorses.

Therein lies the clue: the old nags have proved what they're capable of and it isn't enough. Surely the time is near to put them out to grass and give youth its head. Richardson, Broomes and Taylor for a start, with Burgess, Baldacchino and Corbett not far behind.

Finally, at the risk of repeating myself, what has David Dunn done?

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.