STUART Ripley still remembers the embarrassment of Blackburn Rovers’ defeat to Trelleborgs, but he believes their UEFA Cup exit may have actually helped them to win the Premier League eight months later.

Rovers’ first European tie ended in disaster 20 years ago today as they were knocked out 3-2 on aggregate by the Swedish minnows.

The mere mention of the name Trelleborgs still makes many Rovers supporters shudder, but Ripley thinks that defeat actually paved the way for arguably the most remarkable achievement in the club’s history.

Later that season, Kenny Dalglish’s side pipped Manchester United to the Premier League title, having finished second to United a season earlier.

“In the end it may have been a blessing in disguise because we didn’t have the distraction of Europe when we were playing in the league,” says Ripley, who played in both legs against Trelleborgs.

“In football you get these games in a season where a team can be playing fantastically well and then all of a sudden you get a rogue result.

“We just put it down to that and Kenny pretty much said that at the time.

“He just said, ‘Put it to the back of your minds, it’s all over and let’s get on with the league’.”

Ripley and his Rovers team-mates knew little about Trelleborgs when their part-time opponents arrived at Ewood Park for the first leg, although the winger insists they did not take the Swedes lightly.

“We’d not heard a lot about Trelleborgs, but they’d obviously been playing well domestically to get into Europe themselves,” said Ripley, whose son Connor has played on loan as a goalkeeper for Swedish side Ostersund this year.

“The press were making a big deal of about the part-time jobs that their lads did. But these Scandinavian sides shouldn’t be underestimated.

“My boy has been playing over in Sweden, I went to watch him a few times and the standard was very high.

“I don’t think we took them lightly.”

A 1-0 defeat still came as a shock.

“It was a banana skin that we managed to step on,” said Ripley.

“They came and did a job on us. If I remember rightly they sat back and caught us on a classic counter attack.

“I just think we got caught cold and maybe there was potentially a bit of naivety in the way we played. We were steamrollering teams in England and I think we tried to do the same, but they came with a defensive formation and nicked the win.”

Hopes of overturning the deficit in the second leg in Sweden were dashed, as Trelleborgs secured a 2-2 draw.

“We were hell bent on the avenging the loss when we got over there,” Ripley said.

“But it was a small stadium and they had a big crowd, so it was a good atmosphere for them.

“We scored two goals away from home in Europe, but obviously that wasn’t enough. They were full of confidence and I remember the crowd were very vocal and pushing them on.

“We were really deflated on the way home and a bit embarrassed.

“We received a fair bit of criticism in the press.

“We’d managed to get ourselves into Europe and were looking forward to a good run, hopefully playing some of the bigger sides in Europe.

“We were absolutely devastated when Trelleborgs were drawn against Lazio in the next round. We would have loved to have played Lazio.”