AS Michael Appleton becomes Blackburn Rovers’ fifth manager of the season, the inevitable premature judgement has already started.

Too inexperienced, no track record, and should have kept faith with Gary Bowyer are just some complaints from the critics before a ball has been kicked in his Rovers regime.

There are also many supporters who believe Appleton is a good appointment – and that is the point.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, and very few are the same, but no-one has a clue how things will pan out.

All we can do now is get behind Appleton and hope he proves himself to be the right man. He deserves our full backing, just like Henning Berg deserved – and got.

A call from one section of supporters to up the ante against the owners on Thursday if Appleton was appointed was ill-judged to say the least.

It is for the club to decide who should be the manager, not any supporter.

I still stand by my view that Rovers’ hierarchy have not treated caretaker boss Gary Bowyer and his assistant Terry McPhillips with a lot of class. But, after the last two years, that doesn’t surprise anyone.

Just like Bobby Mimms, Eric Black and Iain Brunskill before them, the media was their biggest source of an update. That should be the club’s job, But that is not Appleton’s fault. He has been brought in to do a job and that job is to get Blackburn Rovers promoted.

The time to judge him is when we see if that aim is going to come to fruition, not now.