THE rubber dinghy has sunk.

The players, having jumped ship on Saturday, paddled furiously and belatedly.

But, as the air hissed out of their inflatable, those efforts were drowned out by every single Blackburn Rovers supporter that stayed behind after the final whistle in a truly moving gesture of loyalty.

If this was an attempt to breath new life into their club, that dinghy will be patched up and will proudly float back into the Premiership harbour before Jack Walker can say "man overdrawn".

I do not think the irony of that reception was lost on the players.

Those supporters have set the standards for next season. The lesson might have been learned the hard way, but Brian Kidd's men now know the depth of passion expected from their future performances.

And all but one of the starting 11 showed that kind of commitment against United last night - the guilty player does not need to be made a scapegoat here.

There is, however, one individual's petty and ignorant behaviour that does need highlighting.

This should not be viewed as sour grapes because, as Kidd rightly pointed out, the Manchester United result was largely irrelevant to the final outcome.

But Alex Ferguson's reaction was, yet again, despicable. He could barely force a handshake with Kidd at the end of the game.

And then, to add insult to injury, Ferguson pathetically attempted to appear shocked that the result had condemned his former right hand man to the First Division.

Can anyone honestly believe that, in the meticulous preparations for United's championship challenge, Ferguson was not aware that Blackburn would, at some stage, have to chase victory?

It was a pitiable attempt to dodge the issue of the petty resentment that Kidd's departure from Old Trafford had clearly caused. Ferguson then chose the occasion to conduct two undignified slanging matches with individuals from the media.

The man is, on occasions, beneath contempt.

Ferguson should look to those Blackburn supporters for a lesson in unashamed humility.

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