SEND the reserve squad to face Spurs in the Worthington Cup Final without Graeme Souness or any of the first team trainers on the bench.

I think the whole first-team squad and Souness need to be incarcerated in Brockhall for the next three weeks until they are allowed out to board the team bus to go to Bolton on March 2. Premiership survival is far more important than any Cup match, even if one of them is a final.

After the Fulham defeat, Souness said: "We are missing something somewhere..." In my view, that missing 'something' is fight, grit, determination -- call it what you will.

What Rovers clearly have plenty of is skill, but without the hard work or grit, the skill is worthless. The never-say-die performance of the Middlesbrough team against Leeds is what we need in every match until the end of the season.

Souness also tells us the alarm bells are not yet ringing in his ears, but they've been ringing in the fan's ears ever since those atrocious displays against Derby and Sunderland over Christmas. Blackburn was built and continues to prosper today out of the hard work and determination of its inhabitants. We expect no less from our beloved football team.

TONY DUNBAR, Plano, Texas, USA.