NOW that the drama around Rovers has devolved into farce it would not surprise me if a team that have scrambled one point and a sending off straight from the stage at the Thwaites Theatre from two winnable games actually beat Manchester United on Sunday, writes Simon Smith.

Let’s face it, Michael Appleton managed to steer a far worse Rovers side to victory at The Emirates. Every dog has its day, even a mangy three-legged one with one eye.

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The half-decent performances - catastrophic marking apart - have led to me thinking that Owen Coyle is a bit of a Jonah character, a serial bad-luck omen.

He lacks only the balding pate and wild beard of Uncle Albert in Only Fools And Horses.

No one is saying the ship was totally steady but he has navigated it into choppier waters and that iceberg gets ever closer.

Besides the fact that opposition defenders can’t help finishing off the great deliveries Connor Mahoney and Elliott Bennett provide, even if our own players can, it would have been better for all if Hope Akpan had shown as much passion for marking, and jumping, for the two goals that Rovers conceded as he did towards confronting the clearly dizzy referee Scott Duncan.

Even after all this time Coyle still appears to have no idea which is his best team for any given game.

One has a small amount of sympathy for his loss of the impressive Tommie Hoban and in the last three games Connor Mahoney and Marvin Emnes have provided what has been long missing; getting shots off early, even if many are off-target.

Although obviously Bennett had also shown some enthusiasm for such efforts.

But it is clearly a case of the players having little respect for the manager and in this climate of ‘player power’ this malaise will continue until Coyle goes. He has brought his own players in yet they also seem to lack a fear of letting him down.

Relegation is now a probability rather than a possibility.

Rovers are losing games in which they are playing well enough to draw or win. It has become a habit and one that is difficult to break.