I STILL feel like I’m in mourning, writes Simon Smith.

As much as I expected relegation, and attempted to come to terms with it as soon as Owen Coyle was still in the job in January, it still immediately cut through the thick lager fog like a knife.

We all know, or at least I hope we do, who is to blame.

Ultimately it is not the Rao family, although in my view they have dreadfully mismanaged the club from day one to this day and beyond.

The crux of the matter is that, as Accrington Stanley owner Andy Holt says, money disappears from the game on top players’ wages and agent fees.

Before the Bosman ruling, fees had been out of control but the money was going to clubs and so still circulating around the game.

Rovers paid decent fees to the likes of Plymouth, Gillingham, St Mirren and MK Dons.

Now all the money that DOES come in to the club is immediately soaked up in unearned wages, debt and more agent fees.

This has resulted in a League One team.

The only way this club can start any sort of a revival is if Tony Mowbray is secured for two further years and money is freed up so every single player who leaves the club is replaced by one at least as good, if not much better in some cases.

A blend of experience and raw talent may take a few games to settle, but if the league had begun when Mowbray took over the fiasco then Rovers would have been lying ninth in the Championship after 15 games.

Have a good summer.

Lower league football will soon be a reality.