TONY Parkes today saluted the spirit which he believes could yet salvage a promotion play-offs spot from this topsy-turvy season for Blackburn Rovers.

The Ewood boss sat through a battling performance as his side earned a 0-0 draw against promotion favourites Ipswich Town at Portman Road last night and singled out the "togetherness" shown by the squad. But, with a home game coming up against Crewe on Sunday, Parkes also admitted that it was coming towards win or bust time for the club's hopes.

"It was a terrific performance in terms of battling qualities and you have to do that when you go to places like Ipswich," he said.

"There was certainly a togetherness about the players.

"They are still trying to prove they can get into the top six.

"And they are out to prove to people that they are all together.

"If anyone above them slips, they want to be there.

"It would have been a disaster if we hadn't got a point. It's important for us, and it keeps us still interested.

"But we'll need to put a good run of results together that's for sure."

Ipswich totally dominated the first half when Rovers survived by some good goalkeeping, strong defending and a slice or two of luck.

"We certainly had to battle hard in the first half when they were much the better side," said Parkes.

"But we dug in, had a little bit of luck and, in the second half, I thought it was a lot more comfortable for us.

"We might even have nicked it but we have to be happy with a point against one of the best sides in the division.

"I think they will go up automatically. They are a good enough team to turn it round. "I thought we took the sting out of them in the second half.

"But we are getting to a stage now where things are tight and supporters think you are going to win every game if you are at the top."

At the end of the game, Rovers' players protested to referee Mike Fletcher who had blown the final whistle as Matt Jansen broke clear on the Ipswich goal.

Two minutes had been signalled for stoppage time but nearly three was played, Ipswich winning a corner and taking it after the whistle should have been blown.

Rovers broke away directly from that corner.

"It was over two minutes when they took the corner. Why did he let them take that?," asked Parkes.

"They usually blow up at a more sensible time. The goalkeeper is usually kicking it and the ball is crossing the halfway line.

"It's very rare that they blow up like that.

"But, if the time was up then the time was up," he conceded philosophically.

Nathan Blake has joined the casualty list after damaging knee ligaments just before half time in last night's game.

Parkes expects the Welsh international striker to be out for two or three weeks but he would not have been available for Sunday's game at Crewe.

Blake will be serving a suspension after collecting five cautions before the end of February. And Parkes has already admitted he is in the market for another striker if he can find one to boost the squad.

But he was particularly pleased by Jansen's contribution as a second-half substitute last night.

"Matt was excellent and, hopefully, he can carry on that good work," added the manager. Rovers Reserves take on Liverpool at Ewood tonight and are expected to field a young side, as they have a few injury problems below first team level.

Liverpool are expected to give Michael Owen a run out after his appearance as a substitute at Old Trafford.

And fellow England colleague Jamie Redknapp has also been pencilled in to play a part.

The Rovers squad is: Bingham, McNamee, Howson, Dunning, Short, Taylor, Baldacchino, O'Brien, Burgess, Hamilton, Forsyth, Hawe, Hind, Corbett, Douglas, Richards.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.