JOE ROYLE peered down from the summit of the Nationwide First Division today and said he is not surprised to see Blackburn Rovers struggling at the wrong end of the table.

The Manchester City boss was at Ewood last night to see Rovers scrape a 1-1 draw against cash-strapped Crystal Palace after another disappointing performance.

And with his table-toppers ready to face Rovers at Maine Road on Saturday, the former Everton chief said Brian Kidd has a massive job on his hands if he wants to turn the Ewood club around.

"I'm not surprised at where Blackburn are," said Royle.

"I knew it would not be easy for them and they are going to have the same problems as we had last year when we went down.

"There's expectancy from your home crowd and expectancy from your directors.

"But the fact is Brian Kidd has got three years of a losing trend to reverse and that's not going to be easy.

"Everyone will be waiting for them wherever they go and all the small clubs will be coming to Ewood and standing round thinking we'll have some of this.

"So we are seeing exactly the same syndrome as it was for us last year.

"But they'll be stronger in the second half of the season.

"I'm sure that they've got the players there and Brian thinks he has the right people in place who can handle this division.

"But what they have got to do, first of all, is reverse a losing trend.

"And sometimes it needs a lot of draws to do that."

Rovers derby against City on Saturday now has even greater importance after they dropped two more precious points at home last night.

After Saturday's home draw against unfancied Grimsby, Kidd's men were hoping to close the gap on the leaders with a morale-boosting victory against Palace.

But despite carving out a host of chances, they had to wait until the 86th minute before Per Frandsen rescued a point with his first goal for the club since signing from Bolton.

Kidd remained upbeat, though, and praised his side for not panicking as time began to run out.

"We wanted them to keep playing and trying to pass the ball and show the kind of patience we did during the first 15 minutes on Saturday and I think we did that," said Kidd.

"I thought we kept our shape and we passed it well and we had complete control of the game.

"And we kept at it even when they flooded the midfield as well, going three at the back, pushing two on and playing three in the middle.

"I know a few people are saying we've got to lump it.

"But you've got to try and keep the ball because we must get a result and a performance as well.

"We've just got to keep working away at it."

"Fair play to Crystal Palace, though, because they got their bodies in the way and Fraser (Digby) pulled off a couple of good saves.

"But it ended up taking something like Per's shot which went through a load of bodies so the keeper couldn't see it.

"People keep saying teams are coming to defend but it's up to us to do something about it."

Kidd had no complaints with the Ewood faithful either who greeted the final whistle with a chorus of boos.

"The crowd have been terrific and the board can't do anymore than what they've done," said Kidd.

"It's up to us to deal with it."

Meanwhile, Jeff Kenna could face a battle to be fit for the City game after missing last night's clash with a slight groin strain.

Winger Damien Johnson was also absent after complaining of feeling unwell.

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