BLACKBURN Rovers could do worse than take a lesson from Swindon boss Jimmy Quinn's philosophy after Saturday's sickening result seriously undermined any pretensions to a promotion play-offs spot at Ewood.

The ex-Rover, battling against a financial crisis with Swindon who have been forced to call in the administrators, has more or less given up hope of his side surviving at First Division level.

But he is conscious of the need to build for next season and, given recent results, perhaps Rovers should also start thinking on similar lines.

"We have had to sell four or five players, we are struggling to pay the wages and it has been a bit of a downer in recent months," said Quinn, whose team have not won since October and have fears about their very future.

"But they did their jobs today and, if we are to be relegated, I won't mind as much as long as we have a right good go as we did here.

"It's going to be a hard task to stay up. I wouldn't put much money on it, because I am a realist.

"We haven't got the quality of other teams in this league.

"But it's important for me to finish this season as well as we can do to get a bit of confidence for next season. You have to have something to build on."

With Rovers still entertaining hopes of being in the play-offs, they are perhaps not thinking as far ahead as rock-bottom Swindon. But, by the end of this week, they might well be staring mid-table mediocrity in the face. Then might come the rethink.

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