ROVERS take on fellow strugglers Everton on Saturday with assistant boss Tony Parkes insisting that all is not as bad as it seems at Ewood Park.

They may have picked up just one point out of a possible 18 and are stuck on the bottom of the Premiership - but Parkes is too experienced to start panicking just yet.

A morale boosting victory at Brentford in the Coca Cola Cup on Tuesday has given Ray Harford's underfire side just the lift they needed.

And while the manager has admitted that confidence on the pitch is lacking, the fighting spirit within the camp burns as strong as ever.

"Once that goes then we have a problem," admitted Parkes. "But the spirit amongst the lads is very strong and everyone connected with the club knows that we will climb away from the bottom of the table.

"Getting that victory on Tuesday was very important for us and long overdue. We have played reasonably well away from home, but have not had the rewards we have deserved."

Parkes said he has been concerned at the way teams have come to the once Fortress Ewood this season and gone away with a victory.

"We appear to be uptight when we play at home, worrying too much about conceding the first goal. That is something we are working on and the sooner we get that home win the better. Hopefully it will be against Everton."

Garry Flitcroft - who opened his Rovers scoring account at Brentford - will be hoping for better fortunes against Everton after being sent off just three minutes into his debut in the corresponding fixture last March.

"I was pleased for Garry to get his first goal. He had a bit of a rough start to his career here and it couldn't have got much worse than getting sent off on your home debut. But he is just one of a number of players beginning to show their form."

Other pluses has been Chris Sutton's goal-scoring return while Jason Wilcox could be in line for a return against Everton or against Brentford on Tuesday.

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