THE road to relegation is no doubt paved with good intentions, not to mention hard-luck stories and glorious failures.

Sound familiar? It should do, because that's the story of Blackburn Rovers' Premiership campaign so far -- never better illustrated than at Old Trafford.

And they look a classic case for the drop at the moment.

The result was not unexpected, but the way it came about left feelings of frustration and despair.

Rovers finished pointless through nobody's fault but their own.

Roy Hodgson obviously knew it, as he waved aside the banal post-match questions from one interviewer about a great fightback by 10 men.

True, it was a comeback that could have gone down in the history books.

A man short, following Tim Sherwood's dismissal just after half time, and trailing 3-0, Rovers somehow induced a state of near-panic in the strange, almost graveyard-like silence of Old Trafford.

They pulled the score back to 3-2 and that brought Alex Ferguson charging to the touchline issuing urgent instructions. Peter Schmeichel joined in too, waving everyone back to defend a Rovers free kick.

But not even such unusual signs of instability among United, who were way below their best apart from an impressive purple patch either side of the interval, could camouflage Rovers' deficiencies.

It would be easy to praise them for their gutsy reply to such a hopelessly lost cause. But you cannot ignore the facts.

To his credit, Hodgson faced up to the reality of what really happened. The home team only had to play well for around half an hour to win the game. From the start, United looked out of sorts, understandably unhappy on an awful pitch and in a blustery wind.

It took them 20 minutes to raise a serious threat on goal and that stemmed from a Rovers blunder.

When they took the lead on 31 minutes, it was courtesy of another cock-up and, surprise, surprise, their second goal just before half-time began with more generosity from the visitors.

Throw in Sherwood's dismissal three minutes after the break and it was not so much a case of Rovers shooting themselves in the foot as cutting their own throat at the same time.

Yet, even after such a black comedy of errors, they could have snatched something from a remarkable revival, inspired by maiden goals for Dario Marcolin and Nathan Blake.

Too much damage, however, had already been done.

A bright Rovers opening, despite poor passing by both teams, was enlivened by the travelling fans who never lost their sense of humour and deserved more from their team.

But United always had much the greater threat in attack when opportunities were presented to them and it showed first when Stephane Henchoz and John Filan suffered a misunderstanding, leading to Andy Cole shooting against the woodwork.

The next blunder was clinically punished as Christian Dailly fatally lost possession to Dwight Yorke and the sliderule pass enabled Paul Scholes to fire home.

Rovers had two 'goals' disallowed for what must have been marginal offside decisions and Kevin Davies volleyed over when he should at least have hit the target.

But United showed how to do it two minutes before the interval.

John Filan put Jeff Kenna under pressure and the ball was won by United, eventually transferred through a static centre of defence and Yorke, with a slight suspicion of offside, blasted it home.

The second half exploded with Sherwood and David Beckham tangling. It did not look a particularly violent incident but Sherwood should have known better than to raise his arm and Beckham, to his discredit, should not have reacted as though he had been hit by a runaway train. But, in today's game, players get sent off for such incidents, especially when their fellow professionals play 'dead' -- not much credit to either participant.

When Scholes danced through, courtesy of a clever piece of obstruction on Gary Croft which the referee failed to spot, to make it 3-0 in the 59th minute, it might have been a rout.

But United seemed to think they had done enough and, with substitute Marcolin prominent, Rovers suddenly took a grip.

Their 10 men were a match for 11 and, when Damien Johnson crossed from the left in the 66th minute, Darren Peacock headed down for the Italian, who had just missed a similar chance, to score with a left foot shot.

Rovers were looking surprisingly good and Davies put Dailly in for a chance which led to a corner and a period of intense pressure.

Schmeichel tipped over a Blake header and, when the corner was played back to Kenna, his cross produced a diving header from the striker which gave Schmeichel no chance.

Sixteen minutes remained and there is no doubt that United were happy to hear the final whistle -- "They're showboating again," was one home fan's comment on their complacency.

The 10 men deserved credit for fighting back but it was too little too late. When you catch Manchester United on an off day, you need to make the most of it and Rovers, simply, committed suicide.

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