BLACKBURN Rovers' recent slump in fortunes has prompted a small knot of fans to call for Graeme Souness's head on a plate.

Such displays of hysteria are inevitable when a club goes through a bad patch.

But as far as I'm concerned the board would be mad to consider chopping Souey now after all he's done for Rovers during the last three years.

Tough times call for strong characters and there's no-one better equipped to lead Rovers through this current crisis than Graeme in my view.

Given what's been achieved since he first took charge, I think it's fair to say that he's the best manager this club has had in a long, long time and it would be foolish to even think about ditching him now after a handful of bad results.

The main reason Rovers are where they are in the table is not down to bad management, it's due to a catalogue of errors over which the manager has no control.

You can't point the finger at team shape or poor team selection, it's individuals making silly mistakes which are costing goals at both ends of the field.

There's not much you can do as a manager when tried and tested players let you down like that in pressure situations.

Once again on Sunday, silly mistakes cost the team dearly and you could see the anguish etched on Graeme's face as the reality of the situation sunk in.

He must be tearing his hair out right now because the team are going through one of those spells where everything that can go wrong, is going wrong.

When push comes to shove, games are won and lost in the box and it doesn't matter if you're playing pretty football in the spaces in between.

If you're not taking chances and conceding soft goals then points are always going to be in short supply.

Football is all about effectiveness and Rovers don't look like an effective team at the moment.

Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole are misfiring up front, while too many goals are flying past Brad Friedel at the opposite end.

But from a manager's point of view, it's hard to get your strikers to relax in front of goal, especially as the pressure increases with every defeat.

Likewise, how do you get your defenders to stop leaking soft goals when they don't mark the players they are supposed to be marking?

Rovers are in a sticky situation and the sooner they realise that, the better.

The worst thing they can do is bury their heads in the sand and pretend that the problems will be solved with a win.

The players need to start performing now. They need to start scoring goals now. And they must stop making silly mistakes now.

At the end of the day, they all get paid handsome salaries to do their jobs and cope with the pressure.

A quarter of the season has already gone and we are in a dog-fight.

That doesn't mean to say it's time to panic, but it is time to wake up to the seriousness of the present situation while something can be done about it.