BRIAN Kidd and his players held a summit meeting to discuss Blackburn Rovers' troubles at Brockhall yesterday - and came out fighting.

The Ewood boss, determined to make the most of another home match against Crystal Palace tomorrow night, called for talks between staff and players following the loss of more precious First Division points against Grimsby on Saturday.

And he was delighted with the response, skipper Jason Wilcox revealing that the players believed the team was very close to turning the corner.

Kidd said: "We were all naturally disappointed about what happened on Saturday, so we all had our say.

"What did please me is that it wasn't all doom and gloom from the players. They were positive and believe in what we are trying to do."

Wilcox, as Rovers' senior player and captain, had a major contribution to make to the discussions and he feels the squad is still capable of mounting a genuine promotion charge.

One of the reasons why he hopes to see that happen is to repay the fans for the way they have continued to back the team.

Crystal Palace provide Rovers with an ideal opportunity to turn words into deeds and Wilcox said: "Believe me, we are all up for it. We want to be successful together and we believe we still can be.

"If we can win this game on Wednesday we can start to shoot up that table.

"Despite some of our results, the players are all still upbeat about things. "And we are aware that we have to make things happen ourselves - no-one can do it for us.

"We have a great owner, an ambitious manager and a group of players who all want to do well for the club.

"As captain, I think I should also stress that the crowd have been brilliant to us.

"The supporters have had to put up with a lot over the past few years. I know how much because I was part of the squad which won the championship and now we have slipped down to the middle of the First Division.

"All the players appreciate that the fans have not been too hard on the team.

"We want to pay them back for it. The best way is by starting to win games.

"Then everything can change and I really believe we are within touching distance of turning it round."

Rovers are still being caught out by teams they should be beating but Wilcox added: "We can't expect to be dominating teams for the entire 90 minutes and keep going at them 100 miles per hour.

"There are going to be periods when we have to be patient and make sure we hit them on the counter attack.

"We had a good start against Grimsby but, for 10 minutes before Shorty got sent off, we had lost our way.

"After the sending-off it was difficult to take anything out of the game.

"But we all believe we are not far away from getting it right." Kidd gave striker Ashley Ward a complete break at the weekend, leaving the striker out of his 16 as he felt he badly needed a rest.

Now he has to decide whether to give him a recall against Palace. "He deserved a break. I think he's done a sterling job because the way Ashley plays he gets battered from pillar to post," said Kidd.

"I thought it was a good chance to leave him out, and I am also thinking about the games we have coming up. I don't look on it as a first XI, I look at it as a squad and the way it is whoever we put in should be more than capable of doing a job."

Damien Johnson was one of a handful of players who reported under the weather today and that could delay Kidd's team selection for the Palace game.

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