Rovers 1 Palace 1 "WAKE up to reality" were the words of an old song that continually came back to haunt me at a depressed Ewood Park last night.

In what must have been the most one-sided conflict since the Romans decided they might as well build an empire, just how low Blackburn Rovers have sunk was there for all to see.

And it does not make very encouraging reading. For there will be no rapid return to the Premiership on the evidence of the past few days.

They totally dominated the entire game against Crystal Palace, yet finished up desperately grateful to salvage a point with a first goal for the club from Per Frandsen.

Manager Brian Kidd publicly defended his players for their efforts, and there's nothing wrong with that. But, behind closed doors, it is to be hoped he has some serious things to say.

For, if Rovers cannot see off sides like Palace by a comfortable margin, they might as well call in the surveyors now and sell off Ewood as prime building land.

No disrespect to the London club, whose manager and playing staff are doing a magnificent job under severe financial restrictions, where they are not even allowed to pay Venezualan trialist Fernando De Ornelas who almost put them in front last night!

But, like virtually every other team Rovers have met so far in this division, they were poor - and I do mean poor.

Any side with genuine Premiership ambitions would have run in half a dozen goals, at least.

But the reality is that Rovers at the moment, for whatever reason, are a long way from being able to do that.

The statistics suggest that Palace were ripped apart time and time again and very lucky to survive with a draw. But it wasn't really like that.

Rovers were in total control yet, paradoxically, didn't play well. That only goes to emphasise how bad Palace were.

Tactics have been questioned by the fans already this season but perhaps it is more a question of personnel.

They like to see the strongest side on view until something happens to disrupt that and, for me, they have a point.

Ashley Ward, surely, should have started as he is Rovers' number one striker in my opinion.

To begin with Nathan Blake and Matt Jansen was strange to say the least.

Even so, Rovers still should have had enough about them to see off probably the worst Palace side that has visited Ewood for decades.

To say they were ordinary would be flattering them and, if you look at the facts and figures, Rovers were way out in front. But they still didn't win and the story of the stats is underlined by what happened in the first half.

Rovers produced a total of 13 goal attempts, compared to just one by Palace, yet hardly did anything to excite anybody in a half-empty stadium.

It was dreary stuff and, while the players might have been showing a welcome touch of patience, it sadly seemed to be at the expense of too much passion.

And the pattern for the evening was set in the ninth minute when Craig Short missed the target badly from just six yards after Jason Wilcox had put him in the clear.

It was a story which was to be repeated throughout the game.

Jansen volleyed over, Wilcox brought the best out of Fraser Digby and, with Callum Davidson prompting, Short, Jansen and Damien Duff all figured in the penalty area action.

But, in truth, it was a dismal first half lacking movement, tempo, conviction, atmosphere and, most important, goals.

The second half was to prove a rather different tale, though the outcome was the same - stalemate.

Wilcox set the tone for Rovers by winning the ball back and shooting just wide but a rare warning salvo was fired by Palace in the 49th minute.

De Ornelas cut in from the left, evaded two attempted tackles and cracked a 20-yarder against John Filan's crossbar.

Suddenly things looked a little more ominous and, six minutes later, Palace scored, probably to their own surprise as much as everyone else's.

Matt Svensson 'lost' Frandsen on Rovers' right and crossed low into the six-yard box. Davidson did well to block Hayden Mullins' first attempt but the ball rolled free for the Palace midfielder to knock it over the line from point-blank range.

Rovers were soon back on attack and, with rather more urgency.

Blake missed a great chance, Jansen might have scored twice, there were claims for penalties as full backs Davidson and Simon Grayson surged into the box and Digby made a save from Grayson and an outstanding stop from Christian Dailly.

When all hope seemed to have gone, Wilcox knocked in a right-wing corner, it was cleared to the edge of the penalty area and Frandsen rifled in a low shot through all the bodies and in by a post.

It was the least Rovers deserved but they still had only themselves to blame that they did not simply climb several places in the table but that they also failed to dramatically improve their goal difference.

Does it get any lower than this? Let us hope not or Rovers really are in dire straits.

Reality is setting in.

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