BRIAN Kidd today faced up to the truth about Blackburn Rovers' predicament, just above the First Division relegation zone.

And the Ewood boss told his players that what counts now is how they bounce back from the latest bitter blows.

Wednesday's 1-1 finish against Crystal Palace, in a game Rovers should have cruised rather than saved, was their third successive draw in the league - and Kidd promised more hard work to put things right.

Before leaving for this afternoon's game away to table-topping Manchester City, he said: "I won't be the only manager or coach in the country saying 'If only'.

"You watch games during the week and you come away thinking that the result wasn't right. But a number of things can cause that. Against Palace on Wednesday there was only one team that should have won that game, there's no doubt about that. But we didn't. "That's life and you have to get on with it. You have no right to expect everything to go well all the time.

"But it's how you respond to it that matters and that's what I try to instil in my players."

Rovers could have had half a dozen goals to lift their faltering season but they flopped.

And Kidd stressed: "There are no excuses. If you look at the cold, hard facts we haven't won enough games this season.

"But we are continuing to work on things. Whether you are successful or you are having a bad time, you can always work at things."

"We are all working hard on and off the pitch and I don't subscribe to the view that we can't do any more.

"We can do a lot more. I know that and, if we were top of the league, you should still be saying you could do more.

"You are never the finished article, that's for sure."

He also told his players there was no point being anxious.

"You can't be worrying about something that's not happened. "I know that's easy for me to say because I've had those experiences, with big games.

"Other people haven't had that experience so it might be difficult for them, whereas I'm fortunate in that I have been in that pressure cooker.

"Anyone who's actually achieved anything has had failures and frustrations before it.

"And the line between mediocrity and being successful is wafer thin."

Defender Christian does not believe Rovers' frustrating run of results is down to anxiety. He feels the team as a whole just need to be more clinical.

"Maybe at times it seems like that but I don't think so," he said.

"The other night we just kept passing the ball the whole game and, while there may be a desire from the crowd for us to get the ball forward, we want to keep it and we created a lot of chances the way we played.

"If we had only stuck a couple away we would have ended up easy winners. "I think we have to be a little bit more clinical all over the park, not just the strikers.

"For example, the other night we had about 17 or 18 corners and it would have been nice to have stuck one away from one of them.

"We did have a couple of close things but we should be taking more advantage of things like that."

Kidd admitted today he had to be patient as he waited for Jason McAteer to return to contention for a first team place with Blackburn Rovers.

And he also revealed that fellow-midfielder Billy McKinlay was still some way short of starting his comeback.

A dearth of reserve team games, plus a bout of tonislitis, has hampered McAteer's return after almost six months out of first team football.

Rovers, in fact, fixed up a reserve team game practice match against Wrexham this week and gave McAteer 90 minutes.

Kidd's policy is not to take chances with long-term absentees - though every effort is made to get them back as soon as possible.

"It's not for the want of trying but when you have been out that long you don't just come back straight away," said the manager.

"If anybody is thinking they are going to come back and risk breaking down again they can forget it.

"Those days have gone. But I think we have done okay on that score."

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