RAY Harford laid it on the line for his players last night as Blackburn Rovers slumped to their third defeat in four matches - We were simply the worst.

The Ewood boss, who must surely have been nudged closer to solving his striking problems with at least one major signing, made no excuses for another bitter home disappointment against Leeds United.

Rovers have still to score a goal after two Premiership games at Ewood and, with four matches played, they stand next to the bottom of the table.

Harford, who has been at Ewood almost five years, admitted: "I would have to say that for the first half hour that was the worst performance since I have been here. "It was the worst we have played and we were lacking ideas.

"We were lucky not to be two or three goals down. We played bad football, it was as simple as that. We didn't play with any intelligence in the first half, that's for sure.

"It just wasn't us. We usually start well. But we made the wrong decisions and were making the wrong passes.

"We got a lot of credit for the way we played at Old Trafford. Perhaps some of them thought they were still there."

The obvious answer - perhaps the only answer - is for Rovers to go back into the transfer market in a big way.

They have tried to buy time for Chris Sutton to shake off the ankle ligament injury which put him on the sidelines at the start of the pre-season matches.

But other injuries have further complicated the situation. And there has been ample evidence of Rovers' problems in the opening matches. Harford admitted that the "easy way out" would be to bring in new players.

But he has felt he had a responsibility to give the men on the staff a chance to take the opportunity offered by the departures of Alan Shearer and, to a lesser extent, Mike Newell.

The pressure to take positive action, however, is starting to build after four games without a win.

And the lack of goal power in attack looked last night as though it was starting to affect other parts of the team.

Rovers were paired today with Second Division club Brentford in the two-legged second round of the Coca-Cola Cup.

They will be away in the first leg to be played in the week beginning Monday, September 16, and at Ewood for the return the following week. Brentford are no strangers to Rovers, as the two clubs have met twice in the League Cup competition in the 1980s.

In 1988-89, Don Mackay's side squeezed through 6-5 on aggregate and, in the 1982-83 season, Bob Saxton's team were knocked out by the Londoners.

A controversial 3-2 defeat at Griffin Park was followed by a goalless draw at Ewood.

Brentford, managed by David Webb, have won three and drawn one of their opening four games to challenge for the early leadership in the Second Division.

It promises to be just the sort of tricky test Rovers didn't want after their own false start.

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