SO it was all a dream, then.

I was clearly seduced, without even realising it, during the new manager's honeymoon.

Suddenly, there I was, giving 'all credit to the lads' and trotting out clichs about the importance of teamwork. There was a perceptible spring in the step as I walked down to Ewood, convinced that never again would I ruin a perfectly good Saturday afternoon enduring the tripe (and no onions, mind) that was served up at the end of the Hodgson era.

I had begun, admittedly with tongue just a little in cheek, to cherish notions of a revitalised, rampant Rovers brushing teams contemptuously aside and ending the season cossetted in mid-table comfort, far from the madding relegation crowd.

Not after Saturday. Not after a performance that was all lead boots and light heads. Not after Sheffield Wednesday had outpassed, outrun, outthought, outfought and outplayed us - oh yes, and outscored us too. Not Man United, not Arsenal - Sheffield bloomin' Wednesday!

While Tango Man danced a jig in front of the Darwen End, the Rovers mascot Roar trudged the opposite touchline, crestfallen. Hard on the heels of those three battling, encouraging, undefeated away games, this was back to the bad old days, with hardly a redeeming feature in sight. So now we know. Even if Uncle Jack prints some more Monopoly money, there will be no 'get out of jail free' card in the game called season 1998-99.

Let's hope he can roll the dice more successfully so that May will be fair for us and we can start again from 'Go' in August.

Like the manager, we'll be taking each game as it comes. Unlike the manager, we'll be worrying about our fellow basement-dwellers, hoping for slip-ups by Charlton, Everton, Coventry, Southampton and Forest - all of whom we've still to play of course.

The message, delivered in those flat Mancunian tones since his first day at the club, was right all along: We're in a battle for

Premiership survival now and we've all got to be 'concentrating on the League'. Nothing else really matters.

But that won't stop me dreaming again tonight, dreaming that tomorrow we'll end Mr Shearer's interest in the FA Cup for another season!

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.