SO bang goes our dreams of reaching the FA Cup final for another season.

What a kick in the teeth last night's fourth round exit at the hands of Sunderland was, particularly after we'd done so well to drag ourselves back into the game courtesy of Flitty's last-gasp equaliser.

No-one likes to lose in any circumstances but to go out on penalties like that makes it even more sickening for everyone connected with the club.

We genuinely thought this might have been our year given who was left in the competition and the draw which was awaiting last night's winners.

But now all we've got left to play for is Premiership pride and that's hugely disappointing given the position we were in just three weeks ago.

At that stage we were fighting for honours on three separate fronts but subsequent results have since ended our interest in two separate cup competitions and now it's going to be very difficult, but not impossible, to finish in a European place following our defeats at West Ham and Villa.

As far as the FA Cup is concerned, the damage was probably done in the original tie at Ewood.

We had a great chance to progress at the hands of a club who were currently fighting for their lives in the Premiership but with the game coming off the back of the Manchester United defeat we found it difficult to raise ourselves again so quickly.

I'm not trying to make excuses for the lads but they have had a punishing schedule over the last two months and that's clearly had a bearing on our recent form.

Only Liverpool and Manchester United have played as many games as us since the turn of the year but the difference with them is they have the strength in depth to rest key players and keep everybody fresh.

Our resources, on the other hand, have been stretched to the limit as a result of a crippling injury list.

Me, Duffer, Craig Short, Henning Berg, Stig Bjornebye, Hakan Sukur and David Thompson have all had injuries recently and it's hugely frustrating not being able to help the rest of the lads when they need you the most.

Now we've got to make sure our season doesn't fizzle out between now and May, because there's still plenty of hard work to do.

Saturday's game against Southampton certainly won't be easy.

Gordon Strachan has done a brilliant job in transforming the Saints into a top eight team and they are up there on merit given some of the stuff they've played this season.

They are not a kick it and lump it side. They like to play football and in my old pal James Beattie they've probably got the Premiership's most in-form striker right now.

It was a big step for James to quit Rovers for the south coast but, since he made the move, he's never looked back and I for one believe he deserves his chance with England.

Since Alan Shearer retired from international football we haven't been able to find a player who can lead the line in the same way but 'Beats' could be just the man.

Let's just hope, however, that he doesn't boost his England claims against us this weekend.