OF COURSE, there's no reason why Rovers can't take on the Premiership leaders on their own turf tomorrow and score a notable victory.

After all, the Worthington Cup is hardly a top priority for David O'Leary's boys this season. He'll probably put out a reserve side, or as near as. They'll be there for the taking.

Now that's the sort of logic that I've used time and again to try to convince myself that, for once, Rovers might make some serious progress in this wretched competition.

The fact remains that, with unfailing regularity, no matter how much the odds are stacked in our favour, how feeble the opposition, how biased towards Rovers the referee (OK, I've started fantasising at this point), we lose. Miserably. At about this stage of the competition, if not earlier.

I can still recall from my schooldays spending hours trying to fathom how we could get knocked out of the League Cup in those happy pre-sponsor days, by Workington, 5-1, at home.

In recent times, our depressing, banana-skin record has been unerringly maintained. Oxford, Exeter, Hull, Stockport (bye-bye, Mr. Harford), the list goes on.

About this time each and every season, Rovers make their exit before the clocks go back.

Last season's change to the current sponsor was my final hope. I mean, can you imagine trying to motivate Simon Garner (bless his cotton blue-and-white socks) to give his all for the Milk Cup? Not exactly his first choice of liquid refreshment, was it? The same goes for the Coca-Cola Cup. And I never saw Andy Kennedy or Mike Newell as regular shoppers at Littlewoods. But the Worthington Cup? Surely our boys could lift themselves for that? It's...well, it's a man thing! But no. After the false dawn of a penalty shoot-out win at Newcastle (now there was a novelty for Rovers), yet again we succumbed meekly, this time at Leicester.

So, I've given up on this competition. The winners of six F.A. Cups and three League titles are, I've concluded, destined never to apply the Ewood polish to this particular bit of silverware.

Unless, of course, O'Leary fields his junior side and Mr Kidd sends out his all-conquering under-19s!

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