NO-ONE seemed to take much notice as an advert for The Samaritans flashed up on the electronic scoreboard while the two teams warmed up for their relegation scrap - and scrap was certainly the right word for Saturday's encounter, writes PETER WHITE.

But, by the end of a fractious and fraught 90 minutes, there would have been more than a few visitors from Lancashire feeling depressed enough to have wished they had written down the number.

Instant help could have been just a telephone call away, which is more than you can say about Premiership safety for Blackburn Rovers.

They simply cannot afford to rely on outside assistance and must take that final step themselves.

Toothless in attack without hamstring victim Chris Sutton, insult was added to injury when skipper Tim Sherwood was sent off in a madcap five-minute spell of mayhem during the second half.

But perhaps a potentially damaging defeat was only to be expected.

After all, the last time Rovers won at The Dell was so long ago that Adolf Hitler's plans to add Britain to his own personal version of the European Community were still on the drawing board - 1938 to be precise.

There had already been one affront from Southampton, when Ewood old boy Robbie Slater had scored their crucial opener. For goals from the Aussie international are scarcer than a Rovers away win these days.

And didn't he know it, as he first of all kicked his old pals where it hurts most, then suggested they might do Saints a favour this week!

"Yes my goals are very rare," he grinned. "But this one could be very valuable. If results go for us this week we could even be safe before we go to Aston Villa - but no parties just yet.

"Blackburn are a club still very close to my heart and I think I was a bit silly at times. I got booked for it but we were really revved up and got the points which is what matters."

The red-haired midfielder's afternoon, in many ways, set the tone.

Whipped up into a frenzy by Southampton's must-win situation, Ginger Spice Slater was like a carrot-topped dervish on a kamikaze mission.

He was involved in a potentially-nasty altercation with Garry Flitcroft in the second minute and another with Jeff Kenna not much later.

A yellow card for a bad tackle finally calmed him down but the game was just like that, full of tension and niggles. The tackles were crunching, but, inevitably, the quality suffered - dreadfully. The keepers had to deal with crosses and back passes but, if it had finished 0-0, you would have said the game had got the scoreline it deserved.

Passes were too often misplaced and there was almost a total lack of creativity.

Rovers were committed enough too and, the goals apart, defended competently.

Ultimately, however, the result - which was what mattered - was settled by a series of blunders as we entered the last 20 minutes.

The first seemed to come from the linesman who disallowed a superb Kevin Gallacher strike on 71 minutes for offside.

Tony Parkes expressed incredulity that the 'equaliser' had been chalked out and it came at a time when they had taken control of the game.

Three minutes later, substitute Matt Le Tissier hit the ball low in the general direction of goal and Colin Hendry swung a boot at the ball to clear as he had already done on countless other occasions.

This time, however, he completely mis-kicked and the ball bounced on into the far corner - Hendry's action having totally deceived Tim Flowers.

"I think Tim would have saved it if Colin hadn't got a touch," said Parkes.

Within two minutes, frustrations spilled over as Sherwood reacted angrily to Jim Magilton in yet another untidy scuffle and was shown the red card for spitting in retaliation.

For that you have to go and, while Magilton remarkably escaped punishment for his prominent part in the confrontation, those five frenetic minutes left no way back for Rovers.

From thinking they were back on level terms, the game had been put beyond them.

But there was always a suspicion that the side who scored first would emerge as winners.

For, before that, both defences had coped quite easily.

Southampton's 22nd-minute opening goal, which put them in the driving seat, was their only decent attack of the first half.

Not that they had to stem too many threats either but, ironically, it came from one of Rovers' best forward moves of the game.

Ian Pearce launched a run down the left-hand side, leaving Southampton players in his wake. He played a one-two with Graeme Le Saux and squeezed past another opponent before Mark Taylor came out to dive at his feet and block the danger. From that, with Pearce and Le Saux out of position, Saints broke straight down their right. Egil Ostenstad, who had collected the club's player of the year award before the start, cleverly tricked his way past the covering Billy McKinlay before unselfishly turning the ball back to Slater.

The Aussie was only about eight yards out and hammered the ball home.

It was, in many respects, a repeat of the Leeds game but without the benefit of a point and Rovers still have to save themselves.

Not even The Samaritans can help them to do that.

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