Rovers in need of home help

On Sunday night, the American illusionist finally ended his self-imposed hunger strike after spending an incredible 44 days in a perspex box suspended above Tower Bridge in London.

But for Rovers and their ravenous supporters, the torture shows no signs of abating.

It's now 65 days, or five games, since Ewood Park last tasted a home victory.

Charlton Athletic became the latest team to profit from generous defending as Hermann Hreidarsson's solitary header condemned Graeme Souness's side to a fourth straight defeat in front of their own fans last night.

And what began as a starvation diet, now feels more like a full-blown famine.

Rovers, like Blaine, are a pale shadow of their former selves right now and they need some points from somewhere fairly quickly to restore the healthy glow normally associated with a position in the top half of the table.

What's happened to the laughing cavaliers who finished sixth in the Premiership in May?

There was a rapier-like quality to much of Rovers' attacking play last season as they excited and enchanted in equal measure.

But the fayre currently being served up is distinctly second rate by comparison, and about as appetising as the contents of David Blaine's water pipe to boot!

Not surprisingly, the natives are getting restless.

A chorus of boos greeted the final whistle as Charlton added their name to a growing list of victorious away teams which already includes Manchester City, Liverpool and Fulham.

Panic may be too strong a word to use at this stage but there was a definite air of anxiety on the terraces as Rovers ran out of ideas against one of the Premiership's middleweights.

"Of the four games we have lost here, we feel as though only Liverpool really deserved to beat us," contested Souness, as he picked through the bones of this latest set-back.

"We've been mugged by City, mugged by Fulham, and now mugged by Charlton tonight.

"We had 60 per cent of the possession, we had more shots on target, and more efforts at goal, but the one thing that's cost us is they defended better than we did at vital times."

Sadly, statistics don't always tell the full story.

Rovers might have dominated possession and had more attempts at goal than their opponents but the fact remains that Charlton keeper Dean Kiely was only called on to make two serious saves of note during the whole 90 minutes.

For me, one of the underlying reasons for the team's current plight is the worrying lack of width.

Last season, Damien Duff, Keith Gillespie and David Dunn, to a degree, were all capable of causing havoc from the flanks and that's where so many of Rovers' goals were fashioned.

But wingers are now an endangered species at Ewood with Souness preferring to go down the route of working midfielders instead in an effort to bring more defensive stability, particularly away from home.

The flip-side to that coin, however, is that it can also leave you desperately devoid of attacking options going forward, as was witnessed here in a tepid second half.

It was only when Paul Gallagher was summoned from the bench in the closing stages that Rovers finally got early crosses into the box and Dino Baggio very nearly conjured a late equaliser.

Before that, there had been precious little to get the home fans off their feet.

Souness's decision to start with a 4-5-1 formation failed to have the desired effect as Rovers coughed and spluttered their way through a largely uninspiring first half.

With Tugay, Garry Flitcroft and Barry Ferguson all strung across midfield, it was far too congested in the centre of the park.

And on the odd occasion when Ferguson or Tugay did find a yard of space there was no-one to give it to out wide as David Thompson and Brett Emerton took up positions a full 20 yards in from the touchlines.

That made it easy for Charlton defensively and Alan Curbishley's team were perfectly content to let Rovers have possession in midfield where they weaved plenty of pretty patterns but rarely threatened any serious danger.

Then when his chance came, Hreidarsson made sure he took it with aplomb.

It was a classic sucker punch, the kind which Rovers have fallen to on countless occasions now this season.

And unless they begin to wise up soon, then it could be a long, hard winter ahead.

Goal-scoring opportunities were few and far between in a quiet opening quarter of an hour, but it was Rovers who looked the side most likely to break the deadlock.

Thompson had an early effort blocked by a defender, Emerton twisted past a couple of challenges but overran the ball into the arms of a grateful Dean Kiely, then Andy Cole really should have got his header on target from a Ferguson free kick.

But right ut of the blue, Charlton scored from their first corner of the night when Hreidarsson stole a yard on Flitcroft and met Paolo Di Canio's flag-kick with a powerful header that fairly rocketed past a helpless Brad Friedel.

Suddenly, Rovers were staring a third consecutive Premiership defeat squarely in the face.

Steven Reid's 25-yard free kick forced a full-stretch save out of Kiely then Cole was unlucky with a powerful drive which hit the side-netting.

Souness dispensed with his 4-5-1 formation at the break and threw on Matt Jansen as an extra striker but it failed to have the desired effect.

Kiely was only called on to make one meaningful save in the whole of the second half when a Thompson header looked destined for the far corner.

Gallagher's late introduction from the substitute's bench at least provided the Addicks with a few anxious moments late on as the crowd's frustration grew with every misplaced pass.

The young Scot picked out Baggio with a raking cross from the right in the 85th minute but the Italian's flick crept agonisingly wide of the far post.

There was still time for Gallagher to provide one last centre for Cole but his header sailed into the Blackburn End, and with it disappeared any hope of rescuing a point, leaving Souness to face his biggest test yet as the Rovers manager.

ROVERS 0

CHARLTON 1

Hreidarsson 33