THERE are those who, if they saw Gary Bowyer walking across the water on Brighton beach this Saturday, would say it’s because he couldn’t swim.

That’s not to say the rest of us are all ‘happy clappers’, nor particularly happy campers. Maybe we’re just not fooled that a manager is the be-all and end-all.

I am always told ‘you can’t keep defending Bowyer’ to which I reply, ‘someone has to. It seems only angry, hysterical men who want him out are speaking up’.

Southampton chairman Nicola Cortese claimed two years ago that his highly successful manager Mauricio Pochettino was ‘a department head like all the others’. Maybe that’s why Pochettino toddled off to Spurs. However, it’s not hard to see Cortese’s point. The manager is just one big cog in a huge machine.

No disrespect to Gary Bowyer, but with his reticent personality, sober dress-sense and hangdog demeanour, it’s no great stretch to imagine him running the accounts department. I tell you what, given what he has achieved here, he could certainly balance the books legally better than 90 per cent of accountants.

I concede it is undoubtedly easier to defend Gary Bowyer in the cold light of day than it is during the 90 minutes of play.

The passing was again sloppy on Tuesday, the defending occasionally hesitant and the first half an anxious period only alleviated by a late burst of action. But Rovers came back out, fronted-up and did not capitulate.

The plain fact is so far we have played three sides that are no better or worse than us. The Rovers players are also now ‘much of a muchness’ and it seems in many cases down to how much effort is put in rather than who is selected.

We demand, as paying customers, entertainment. We demand, as fans, results so we can hold our heads up at work and take on bragging rights. For a team in the situation Rovers are now – still under financial embargo and losing quality players – we can’t have both. Not yet.

Believe me, if Fergie or Keegan decided to come out of retirement, or Hughes or Souness fancied a return, I’d be down at Ewood helping clear Gary’s desk for him.

But they don’t, so we must keep moving forward, however painfully slow.