Well I can't say I didn't try!

Following my attempts earlier this week to put aside old rivalries and lend some support to our struggling neighbours Burnley, by proposing the National Trust take over Turf Moor as a Grade 2 Listed Building, the response, to say the least, was mixed.

Seriously though, following Rovers misleading 4-0 home defeat to Aston Villa, I was reminded of just how distressing it can feel when it doesn't go as planned for your team and realised that while I was only having a "friendly pop" at our luckless Claret friends, tired of living in our imposing shadow, they don't need me making things worse than they already are!

I promise to try to be more magnanimous in our superiority from now on.

The game itself was a strange one, because despite the understandable glee of the Turf Moor faithful, and the admirable efforts of referee Phil Dowd to buck the trend in opinion that officials always favour the home team, Rovers actually performed a lot better than the 4-0 scoreline suggests.

It is a long time since I left Ewood Park feeling so depressed after a match, but as Mark Hughes will undoubtedly point out, the focus must now be on Saturday's game against Newcastle, whose fans really have something to moan about, and this means we the crowd must get right behind the team, even if things don't go to plan early on.

Fear not, Rovers will soon be back to winning ways.

"Trust" me!

  • Paul Salmon writes a Blackburn Rovers fan blog on the Lancashire Telegraph website. If you'd like to write a fan blog - for Burnley, Accrington Stanley, Blackburn Rovers or any other East Lancs sports team - click here to email the sports editor.