MARTIN Dahlin's future at Ewood could be short-lived if Blackburn Rovers finally plunge into the transfer market to strengthen their strike force this summer, writes PETER WHITE.

That was abundantly clear from Roy Hodgson's comments in the wake of Saturday's latest defeat at West Ham which continued what the manager bluntly described as "ridiculously bad form."

Hodgson said he did not want to talk about Dahlin, after being asked if the Swedish striker was fully fit now.

But he expanded: "His season's been a disaster. We have played 52 games and he has not played a serious part in any of them."

And the manager did not attempt to disguise the fact that things could change in summer.

"Maybe he is not the player I remember him to be," he said.

"At the moment he is not in the side and if we sign further front players he is a player who wants to play football and he will want to leave.

"But if he wants to stay, he can stay because he's obviously a useful man to have on the bench and can go on like he did (at West Ham)."

Having made his feelings plain, Hodgson then said that he didn't want to talk about one particular player.

"Martin Dahlin was one of the 16 players we had against West Ham and he's played 12 minutes. His 12 minutes were quite good, that's what I think about Martin Dahlin."

The striker, signed from Roma for £1.6 million last summer, has had a bitterly disappointing time at Ewood.

He has been dogged by injuries and has also been unable to break up the successful partnership between Chris Sutton and Kevin Gallacher.

Dahlin might have equalised as Rovers had chances at West Ham but Hodgson took no consolation from that as their European hopes threaten to disappear down the pan.

"It's a disastrous scenario as far as we are concerned," he said.

"Whether you deserve things or don't deserve things makes not a halfpennyworth of difference. You get what you get. "We have lost six of the last seven games and that is ridiculously bad form in anybody's eyes."

"The fact that Ferguson thinks that we played the best football anyone has played against them, or that somebody says you deserved something doesn't make any difference. We have got no points and if you have no points what is the point of even talking about it?"

Tim Sherwood was left out of the Rovers side on Saturday and Hodgson explained: "I couldn't take a risk with him, one because of his injury (groin), two because he has a slight cold and three because if anything had happened to him during the course of the game I wouldn't have had a midfield player next week.

"We don't carry 35 players."

On the match itself, Hodgson said: "It was a tough game, it was a game where both teams gave all, where I thought, for the neutral spectator, it must have been an excellent game of football.

"There were a lot of duels for men out there and West Ham go above us into the UEFA spot. "For me there's nothing I can say which will make me feel better about it and I don't want to make any excuses for our performance.

"We defended badly in the first half and paid the price. We attacked and played well in the second half but we didn't take the chances which fell our way. Therefore we lost the game."

Coach Rob Kelly is confident Blackburn Rovers can clinch a place in the final of the FA Youth Cup as they take a slender 1-0 lead from the semi-final first leg to Peterborough tonight.

Goals from Paddy Connolly (2), Martin Taylor and Peter Murphy kept Rovers B team's championship challenge on course with a 4-0 win at Wrexham. The A team lost 3-0 at Everton.

Rovers Reserves take on Birmingham at Ewood tonight (kick-off 7pm).

They are involved in a three-way fight for the Pontin's League Premier Division title with Manchester United and Leeds.

Damien Duff has dropped out of the Republic of Ireland squad to face Argentina on Wednesday, with the groin injury that has kept him out of Rovers' last two games.

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