IT'S that time of the year when the TV schedules become packed with repeats of classic old shows from a bygone era.

Images of Steve McQueen breaking out of an army camp and Del and Rodney cooking up another money-making scam are no doubt coming to a screen near you at some stage in the next fortnight.

But Graeme Souness and his players are currently being plagued by a different kind of recurring storyline after this latest defeat at Everton had an all-too-familiar ring about it.

For the umpteenth time this season, Rovers dominated possession, carved out a succession of chances, and should have taken at least a point from a game in which they arguably did enough to win.

But, as with the Trotters' get-rich-quick schemes in the 'Only and Fools and Horses Christmas special', somehow you know it's going to end in disappointment.

That's exactly what happened here after a couple of individual errors led to Rovers' second defeat at the hands of Everton in the space of a month.

Everything in the garden looked rosey when Andy Cole headed the visitors into a sixth minute lead in what was a fitting reward for a blistering start.

However, all that good work was quickly undone when sloppy defending then contributed to Lee Carsley's 12th minute equaliser.

But that was nothing compared to the gift that was then presented to Wayne Rooney 14 minutes later who accepted it with open arms.

From then on, luck conspired to work against Rovers as David Thompson was denied what looked like a clear penalty and Lucas Neill then saw red as a result of another gaffe from referee Graham Barber.

But there was no getting away from the fact that these wounds were ultimately self-inflicted as Souness was left to reflect on a run which has seen his side take just six points from the last 21 available.

"It's the same old Blackburn, isn't it?" mused the Rovers boss.

"We played lots of football, we were the best team, we had the best chances, I think, but their goalkeeper had a good day and a lucky day and we were guilty of bad defending.

"I think Tiny had a faultless afternoon other than the mistake he made in allowing the ball to bounce for the second goal.

"But I've been in the game long enough to know that as long as we keep playing our football then things will change.

"I can't ask any more from my players than what they give me already. In football terms, we play as much as anybody but what we don't do is defend as well as the teams sitting around the top three or four, otherwise we'd be up there with them."

Playing good, attractive football is an art form but so, too, is the ability to produce winning football and Rovers appear to have lost that in recent weeks.

Teams like Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea, on current form, are all where they are in the Premier League table because you have to work hard to score against them.

The same can't be said for Rovers right now because they continue to haemorrhage soft goals at an alarming rate.

Celtic, Charlton, Bolton and now Everton, twice, have all been beneficiaries of some frail defending recently.

And as long as you continue to gift opposition sides cheap goals so frequently, it makes the business of winning football matches all the more difficult.

Of course, it doesn't help when you've got someone as incompetent as Mr Barber in charge of proceedings, either.

Rovers were denied what looked to me a stonewall penalty within a minute of Rooney's strike which proved to be a major turning point.

And if that wasn't damaging enough, then his decision to send off Neill merely added to the farce.

In my book, neither of the Aussie's two challenges deserved a booking and with the first one, in particular, he clearly won the ball.

We can only hope that Mr Barber sees sense and owns up to his latest mistake.

But I wouldn't hold my breath.

Rovers exploded out of the blocks and could have been 3-0 up inside six minutes.

Garry Flitcroft had a header booted off the line by Tony Hibbert and a Craig Short effort forced a sharp save out of Richard Wright.

But the Everton keeper was then flapping when Rovers did break the deadlock in the sixth minute.

Thompson whipped over an inswinging free-kick from the left and Cole darted in ahead of Wright to steer a glancing header inside the far post.

Had Dwight Yorke then made more of a golden chance five minutes later, Everton might have been dead and buried.

Instead, the Toffees were back on level terms inside a minute and what made it even more galling was the goal came from the boot of Ewood old-boy Carsley.

Kevin Campbell raced down the right and crossed for Rooney whose shot struck a post but Carsley was on hand to pocket the rebound.

If that was sloppy, then it was nothing compared to the Blues' second goal which arrived in the 26th minute.

Wright thumped a goal-kick down the centre which should have been meat and drink for Martin Taylor but, instead of attacking the ball he allowed it to bounce, and that was all the incentive Rooney needed as he chested it down, charged forward, and slotted a low drive past Brad Friedel in a style all too reminiscent of a young Alan Shearer.

Rovers should have been handed a route back within a minute when Thompson was felled by Joseph Yobo but Mr Barber waved away the midfielder's vociferous penalty appeals.

Just to rub salt into the wounds, Cole then saw his shot bounce back off a post after brushing off a defender.

The mercury rose even higher after the break as the two sides traded chances.

Carsley and Thomas Gravesen went close for Everton while Wright pulled off two stunning saves to keep out point-blank headers from Taylor and Short.

But, for all Rovers' pressure, they failed to breach a stubborn home defence and their frustrations were summed up in the 74th minute when Neill saw red for his second bookable offence.

Souness was seething and who could blame him?

It was another unsatisfactory ending to a bad day at the office.

EVERTON 2

Carsley 12, Rooney 26

ROVERS 1

Cole 6

Attendance: 36,578