Kendal 73

Blackburn 0

DINO Radice insists Blackburn can still beat the drop – but says that Saturday’s home date with Rochdale is a must-win game.

‘Burn were crushed 73-0 by Radice’s former club Kendal last weekend, plunging Blackburn into the bottom three for the first time this year.

“We can still stay up, of course we can, but the pressure is on the players to perform now,” said Radice.

“We’ve two very winnable games against Rochdale and Altrincham Kersal the week after, and we have to win both.”

“Our league position is a concern but we are at home and we have to make that advantage count.”

The odds are stacking up against Blackburn, who have not won since November and have lost their last six games.

But the Ramsgreave Drive faithful will still believe that Radice can use his vast experience to revive Blackburn’s campaign that had promised so much in the early part of the season.

“It was a drubbing against Kendal, who are a very fine side and I think they will go close to winning the title,” added the Blackburn coach.

“It was always going to be a hard fixture but I thought they were only 35 points better off than us, not double that.

“It didn’t help having our captain sent off after a quarter of an hour and then to pick up two yellow cards.”

Blackburn missed an early penalty and that set the tone for the rest of match. By half-time, they were 33 points behind and Kendal already had victory in the bag.

“We just didn’t put them under enough pressure and we didn’t win enough phases,” added Radice.

“It was very disappointing but we have to get back on the horse and ride again.”