A RAGING Paul Ince has warned his Rovers players ‘you’re in the middle of a Premier League dogfight’ after seeing them tamely sink into the relegation zone.

The Blackburn boss publicly lost his rag for the first time since his summer appointment, slamming Saturday’s second half collapse to Sunderland as an “embarrassment”.

Chris Samba’s 45th minute opener was no more than Ince’s men deserved but a horrific next 45 minutes saw Roy Keane’s Black Cats add to Rovers’ Ewood woes with a 2-1 win.

Ince has been supportive of his injury-ravaged squad throughout a transitional start to the campaign but Saturday’s second half debacle left him with few positives as they slid into the bottom three.

He said: “The others have to stand up and be counted and realise they are in a dogfight and now they have to start showing what they have about them.

"The way we capitulated second half once it went to 1-1. The leaders and characters out there had to get us back together.

"I have just had a go at them because I am upset, I am annoyed, I am angry.

"They got themselves in such a great position, but didn't take their chances in that first half.

"For us to have to bring Tugay on to start playing football again they should be a bit embarrassed with themselves."

Just one win from seven home Premier League matches, and just four goals scored, will leave all Rovers uneasy about the coming months.

Ince remains upbeat about the future but accepted Saturday's capitulation was simply not good enough as strikes from Kenwyne Jones and Djibril Cisse stunned the home faithful.

"I have always said about performances and I thought in the second half we were diabolical," Ince said.

"After Wednesday when I didn't play a full strength side, today I did and they let me down the majority of them.

"It can't always come from the management, they are the ones out there but we just capitulated when it went to 1-1 and they looked like the only team scoring.

"When it went to 2-1 we looked like the only team who would score but you can't play football like that.

"It can't be you attack, we attack, you attack. Goals change games and we had enough chances in the first half to change how that second half went."