The three points made no odds in the end, but it was nice to finish in style.

I’m glad I’m not a Wolves fan. Doomed to zero points from the moment Michel Salgado’s drive went in off Jason Roberts, their side spent the afternoon bouncing up and down in and out of the relegation zone, before a Spurs winner against Birmingham sent the fans into raptures and confirmed Wolves’ status as a Premier League side.

Rovers’ status was never in doubt after that early strike, which was followed by a stunning volley from Emerton and a sublime goal from Junior Hoilett.

Steve Kean is probably right about one thing; that was probably the best 45 minutes of football Rovers have played this season. Although it has to be said that Wolves were shocking.

The second half saw Wolves come back into the game after McCarthy threw on another striker. It could have been a lot easier had Roberts managed to beat the keeper when one on one, but his miss was followed by a resurgence from the home side.

Knowing they’d done enough later on they sat back and allowed Rovers to pass the game through to the final whistle, a la the closing stages of the United game last Saturday.

After the final whistle, the Wolves fans engaged in a pitch invasion, which resulted in a mass sing-song for the whole stadium, Wolves and Rovers fans, of We Are Staying Up. The Wolves fans, to their credit,  then, having returned to their seats for their team’s lap of honour, applauded the Rovers players who came over to thank the travelling fans – a gesture appreciated by the away section.

It’s been a very tough season for Rovers fans to bear, but now we can finally rest easy knowing we have top flight football to look forward to.

Now is a time to forget about the season just passed, and concentrate on the future. Now is the time for Venky’s to show us exactly what their plans are … And if they actually have any money.

There’s no point getting on the backs of anyone now. Steve Kean is here to stay. Venky’s are here to stay. Now they can build a side in their image that could take this club on in the future.

Fingers crossed, they’ll throw in a few million and build on what is a decent side. Kean will continue to gain experience and tactical nous, and maybe they’ll even consider bringing in a director of football to lend a guiding hand to the manager, and perhaps to give him a lift to the training ground …

At least maybe now someone will finally tell us how much a season ticket is going to cost for next year!

That is the reality the club faces.

The other reality is that we are in the best position possible of all the clubs facing a nervous day on Survival Sunday.

With Birmingham, Blackpool and Wigan all trailing us by a point and needing to make up a deficit of six, seven and eight goals respectively, they all need to win big and hope we lose big at Wolves, who are also in the faecal matter.

Another plus is that Birmingham travel to Spurs, who are almost unbeatable at home if you’re not a top club, Blackpool face the champions Manchester United who, despite probably fielding a weakened side with the Champions League final on the horizon, are yet to lose at home this season and will not want that to change here, while Wigan visit Stoke who are always good at home.

For us to go down, we have to lose, and two of those three teams have to win. Surely even Rovers can’t be that unlucky?

Anyway, the best thing for all Rovers fans on Sunday would be to forget about all other sides down there and for us to win.

The fans should be in good voice as usual. Rovers support has been phenomenal on the road recently. Selling out constantly and being vocally brilliant. And it was great to see the club reflect this with the fantastic offer to pay £13 of every adult season ticket (and similar subsidies for all concessions), which, with tickets selling out once again, means they will actually have to fork out about £35,000.

With all the negativity surrounding the club this season, this was one shining light that really gives me hope that the fans may still be looked after.

Wolves will be far from easy. They can be very good. Especially at Molineux. But they are a funny side that can not turn up on the day. However, if Rovers are really up for it they should be good enough to beat them.

And if they aren’t up for what is once again the most important game of the season, then they really shouldn’t be playing Premier League football.

An outstanding performance from Rovers all round with Samba and Jones proving colossal at the back, Jermaine Jones showing us he really is a quality midfielder (sign him up if possible) and dominating a nervous-looking United side for large periods of the game.

Before kick off I didn’t expect anything. I find it’s the best way to approach games like this to avoid disappointment. Keep expectations low and you cannot be upset by the outcome.

Then we started the way we did and went ahead after 20 minutes.

What followed was another West Ham. Seventy minutes of destroying finger nails.

Unfortunately, the inevitable happened and Manchester United were awarded a penalty.

A draw was the result both sides would have settled for before the game. But with Blackpool and Wolves winning, Rovers really needed the three points in the end.

The final 10 minutes, bizarre as they were, I can understand. I can see both sides of the argument and understand why some fans are outraged. But I can also see the side of the argument that says the point gained means Blackpool MUST win at Old Trafford/Birmingham MUST win at Spurs/Wigan MUST win at Stoke. Whereas had we gone on the attack and lost, a point for any of those sides could potentially take them above us (if we lose at Molineux).

What frustrated me most about the game was referee Phil Dowd. Now I don’t like to blame referees and get into the idea that referees cost games, but there was pure inconsistency on show from the man officiating this crucial fixture.

In the first 20 minutes, Jermaine Jones (I think) was booked for pulling Rooney’s shirt on the half way line. It was a first offence (again, I think). We went on to pick up more bookings.

Meanwhile, Nemanja Vidic committed at least two fouls and received nothing. I’m not saying they were necessarily bookings, but Phil Dowd set the bar by booking Jones for shirt-pulling, yet didn’t follow that decision up by being as strict with the United players.

My main gripe, however, is, as you may have assumed, the penalty. Now, I still haven’t seen any replays. I just have what I saw from my seat in the Blackburn End. Which is nothing.

I’m not disputing whether according to the rules it was a penalty or not.

What I am disputing is the fact that when Hernandez goes down, the referee doesn’t know if it’s a penalty. The linesman doesn’t flag, so he clearly doesn’t know it’s a penalty. However, having gone to the linesman and been surrounded by half of United’s squad, he awards the penalty.

How can this decision have been reached? How can the linesman, having not raised his flag, and the referee, having not blown for a foul, award a penalty using hindsight?

I sincerely hope the loss of two points in this game does not cost us our Premier League future. Mind you, I doubt Phil Dowd will lose any sleep.

At the start of the season, there are three games you can write off as a realistic Blackburn Rovers fan.

Those games are the trips to Old Trafford, The Emirates and, of course, Stamford Bridge.

I’m not saying a result in those games is impossible, just very unlikely.

If you assume from the beginning of the season that those nine points will not be won, then anything more than a defeat is a real bonus.

Yesterday was no exception. A lot of people were feeling positive given our recent form and Chelsea’s apparent lack of it, and perhaps that was a little misguided.

Of course, if you’re going to get a result at Chelsea, this was as good a time as any to play them, but by no means was I getting over-excited.

I thought it was a very good defensive display from Rovers with some excellent last ditch tackles. But Chelsea were all over us.

We had a couple of chances but, taking my blue and white spectacles off, if we had got anything from this game it would have been a travesty.

Moving on, and as this was Steve Kean’s sixth Premier League game in charge, it’s a perfect time to reflect on his performance so far.

I did not hide my anger at the sacking of Sam Allardyce, or the appointment of a complete novice in Kean, when it happened. It seemed outrageous at the time.

But it happened. We have to move on.

My anger, and that of many other Rovers fans, was not helped by Kean’s first two matches – the 1-1 draw with West Ham followed by a disgusting home defeat to Stoke.

The win at West Brom was pleasing – especially as it showed the new-look Niko Kalinic at his best (until the dosy Croat got sent off), before a disappointing performance and 3-0 defeat at Sunderland. But Sunderland have one of the best home records in the Premier League, so there was no real shame in the defeat.

That was followed by an incredible night at Ewood, one of the best Rovers performances in a long while and an excellent 3-1 win over Liverpool. Granted, the Scousers were in a bit of bother and not playing very well, but we are not Brazil and had to outperform them to guarantee an excellent result.

Follow that with cup progress. QPR at home was not an easy tie on paper and they caused us some problems. But the job was done and we got through to the next round of the cup.

Then, of course, yesterday’s match.

So a bit of a mixed bag really. The Bolton game – Big Sam’s last in charge – saw us drop to 13th in the table, although I doubt we’d have stayed there. We are now 11th, on 28 points – four wins away from the magic 40 points, although I don’t believe avoiding relegation is still our primary objective.

Mrs Desai’s – as well as most of the footballing world’s – quarm with Big Sam was not his ability to get results on limited resources, but the manner in which he did that. Unattractive “hoofball” is how it was labelled. Although I often felt we weren’t given the credit we deserved when we did play some decent stuff.

Steve Kean has changed things. He’s using quick wingers – Olsson and Hoilett – to burst down the flanks, with two strikers – One being Kalinic who is now encouraged to run at defenders and not play with his back to goal, often resulting in him falling over, and a big, strong, target man for Niko to play off – be that Diouf, Benjani or Roberts.

This more attacking, quick approach is more pleasing on the eye, and is proven to work.

As my mate Rick says, football is a very simple game, and the tactics Kenny Dalglish used when he brought the title to Ewood are still effective today.

You need a big bruiser centre back accompanied by one who can pass a bit. Two full backs who, as well as being good defenders, are capable of bringing the ball forward and putting a decent cross in, who work well with two speedy wingers who can take on the opposition full backs and cross well. You then need two good central midfielders, one more defensive than the other, who can pass and shoot and channel the balls out to the wide men. Then you need two strikers, as described above, one that can hold the ball up and play through the more skillful, quick striker that has a bit of flair.

I know that’s all very “ideal world” stuff. But from what I’ve seen fo Steve Kean’s tactics, he’s trying to go about football in a way that is proven to work.

NOTE: If you have tried to comment but get an error message saying “Forbidden”, I have not blocked you or anything like that. There is a problem somewhere, I can’t even leave comments myself

Before Wednesday night, of Steve Kean’s four matches in charge I had been at three, and not one had filled me with confidence. Then, something weird happened.

Tonight, against what has to be said was the worst Liverpool side I have ever seen, Rovers pulled a massive rabbit out of the hat.

Of late, I’ve not been particularly looking forward to going to matches, and have not felt particularly confident ahead of them. This was no different.

You’ll understand my great surprise then when a perfect pass from Mame Diouf released Martin Olsson who slotted the ball through Reina’s legs and sent Rovers into raptures.

Six minutes later, and it was even more unbelievable when Benjani beat Kyriagos and smashed the ball home to make it 2-0.

More of the same in the second half as excellent work by Hoilett saw him beat two defenders before playing the ball across to Benjani who tucked it away from close range.

Gerrard’s penalty in the 85th minute was a big worry, but as he skied it you knew this was our night.

It’s been a while since Rovers fans have witnessed such a good performance, and result, particularly against one of the bigger clubs.

Fair enough, Liverpool aren’t the Liverpool of recent years as they have entered a period of decline, but to beat them so convincingly with Torres, Gerrard, Cole and Kuyt, to name just four, among their ranks is still a great result.

Everyone put in a man of the match performance and Junior Hoilett deserved to win the official award – he seems to have come on in leaps and bounds. He was involved in much of the attacking play, took on defenders and set up the third with that great run.

Didn’t think the chants of “Sacked in the morning” directed at Roy Hodgson were entirely justified. The man took us to Europe in a very exciting 1997/98 season before getting the sack when the following season was going downhill. Although it did become rather ironic when Rovers got him the sack … Again.

QPR

A poor game but with the desired ending. A great finish from Junior eventually gave us the win, but it could have been wrapped up early on.

Diouf missed a few sitters again, and Kenny made two cracking saves then we had one cleared off the line.

It seemed as though the collision between Mackie and Givet made an impact, though. And not just with the Frenchman leaving the field (only a bruise, thankfully) – afterwards we became a little bit more cagey.

QPR were extremely physical. I find that if you notice the opposition’s physicality as a Rovers fan, they must be a bunch of dirty buggers as we’re not exactly the softest team around.

It was good to see Lowe getting a run out and he did well enough on the night. But it was another great performance from Junior that provided the only real warmth on a cold day.

DRAW

I love cup draws. The anticipation of who you might play in the next round is exciting.

For me, round four needed to be a good away day or an “easy” home game. Obviously Burnley would have been a laugh. Stevenage, Burton or Notts County either at home or away would have been good days out/winnable.

So to draw Aston Villa away was a huge disappointment. They knocked us out of both cups last season and the Carling Cup this season. It’s definitely winnable, though, with Houllier’s Villa in a very bad run of form, but not the greatest game we could have hoped for.

We must accept that if things continue as they are, we are in the relegation battle.

Today’s defeat at Liverpool was disappointing, not just because of the result – to be honest, it’s not often you expect points from Anfield -  but the manner in which defeat came.

Yes, we were without Samba and Nelsen. But that doesn’t mean our defence should cave in the way it did for Liverpool’s goals. They were poor – but there should have been more.

Paul Robinson was undoubtedly the Rovers’ man of the match, it’s just unfortunate he couldn’t do anything for the two goals. When the goalkeeper gets man of the match two games running, questions must surely need answering.

It’s been the same every game so far this season – where are the goals going to come from?

Benjani and Diouf linked up well for our short-lived equaliser. But apart from that, Pepe Reina was practically on holiday today.

Last week, Sunderland’s visit was another non-event. We could have taken something from the game had Samba not allowed himself to get distracted, which let Bent through on goal only for the big man to take him down from behind. A definite red.

At 10 men, we were never able to match Sunderland and did well to come away with a point. A point at home against Sunderland – and we were relatively happy with that. Not good enough.

It’s these games we need to win to prove we are a solid Premier League side with no real danger of being sucked into a relegation battle. Home games against Fulham and Sunderland are the ones we need to win, but we aren’t.

I’m not going to jump on the ‘Sam out’ bandwagon just yet.

It’s not his fault. He does the best he can on limited resources and plays a style of football he knows can be successful. Unfortunately, this style of football is awful on the eye and frustrating as hell at times, especially when it doesn’t work.

We play so deep that when we do try to attack there’s nothing there, and if there is someone up front it’s usually Niko Kalinic fighting a lost cause on his own.

Surely it’s time to look at the options and have a tactical rethink? This is not Sam’s way.

On the ‘Sam out’ bandwaggoners – who would you replace Big Sam with? We’re hardly spoiled for choice in the management world. And who would want to take on the poisoned chalice that could be Blackburn Rovers if Sam left?

Onwards and upwards. At least we’ve got a nice home banker next week, eh? Chelsea at home. Three points guaranteed . . .

This shit situation was exascerbated by the fact when the weekend finally came around and Premier League football resumed, there was no Rovers.

Combine this with the fact it’s exactly a month since we last had a game at Ewood, and we are all really looking forward to tonight.

The Sunderland match is rarely a classic, and as the Mackems appear to be in a similar situation to us goals-wise, it doesn’t have the hallmarks of one tonight.

However, Rovers could be boosted by the return of Dunny, who is expected to play at least some part in the match.

We’ve missed Dunn’s goal threat this season and could do with him remaining injury free for the rest of the season.

Keith Andrews misses out again through injury, as does Grella – as you may have expected. While Ryan Nelsen is also a doubt.

Darren Bent, who has apparently scored 83 per cent of Sunderland’s goals this season, is injured – Hurrah.

If you’re daft enough to read anything into the league table at the moment, it doesn’t make pleasant reading. However, a win in this game can potentially see us rise nine places in the Premier League, to seventh.

A defeat, however, would leave us three points behind Bolton and two behind Blackpool and Stoke – sides we really do need to be keeping pace with, even at this early stage.

It will be interesting to see how the referee deals with the game. After Danny Murphy’s comments recently, the media will be praying for a mistimed Samba lunge to result in a broken bone and a sending off, just to prove that Rovers really are a dirty set of vicious animals.

In case you didn’t hear about it, Rovers circulated a press release last week, it stated:

Since my last post, apart from a fantastic day out and win at Blackpool, things have been relatively bleak.

It’s nothing new, really. Sam has stuck with the same tactics that somehow got us to 10th last season. It’s not pretty, but it can be effective.

It can also be pretty rubbish.

We’ve developed the uncanny knack of not scoring goals. And when we do score them, we have developed another talent – allowing the opposition to come back and equalise, usually in the second half.

Negatives aside, it’s not all doom and gloom – we’ve got a trip to Anfield coming up, so there’s a guaranteed three points.

There are whisperings of discontent among the Rovers faithful at the current management of the side, but what’s new? Take a look back at last December, three defeats against the top sides in the league saw us stuck in the lower reaches of the Premier League. Talk began. Allardyce had “three games to save his job”. It was all bullshit.

At the end of the day, maybe we have just become slow starters.

Looking at the games to come, and putting form to one side, we’ve got a host of winnable games this side of New Year.

Sunderland, Wigan, Wolves, West Ham and Stoke all have to visit Ewood, while we travel to places where we should be able to pick up points – Newcastle, Bolton and West Brom, to name three.

Moving on to individual performances – most impressive has been El Hadji Diouf.

I’ve always thought Diouf was a handy player. He absolutely loves playing and can be a real handful for defenders. He’s also great at winding up opposition players, and fans. His temperament, as we all know, is annoying. In fact, he’s just stupid. And if I’d had my way he’d have had all his bones broken after taking that dive at Ewood to give Bolton the winning penalty a few years ago.

But now, with my blue and white shades well and truly on, Diouf has been arguably our best player this year – he certainly has if you eliminate the defence before choosing.

Looking back, and Phil Jones has continued to impress. He’s been pushed forward into a more forward role, but I think, if he isn’t to be used in the centre of defence where he was solid as a rock last season, he ma be better used pushed further forward into a more attacking role.

Chris Samba has probably been the best player of the season, simply continuing the outstanding form he has carried throughout his entire Rovers career, and Paul Robinson has been faultless between the sticks.

Disappointment comes in the form of Vince Grella who, having returned from injury has proved shocking on the pitch, and the new Diouf, Mame Biram. Despite starting impressively, he has become something of a passenger, although he has played much of the time out of position.

What is beyond doubt right now is our need for a bit of creativity in midfield. We need David Dunn.

Apologies for the absence recently. I hope to get back to normal service now I’ve broken the duck!

We were the better side for much of the game. We created chance after chance and were awarded a penalty.

But some shite finishing, a penalty save and some slack defending at key moments saw us lose what appeared a very winnable game.

Pedersen will be as annoyed as anyone about the penalty. Yes, it was a good save, and Ben Foster has gone on to laud it over the rest of the goalkeeping world, but it was the perfect height for him and he was a tad lucky it came out off the bar.

It was still 0-0 at that point, though, and we went on to take the lead moments later with what is fast becoming a typical Rovers goal. Stick a load of the big boys up top for a corner and aim high. Steven N’Zonzi rose highest to give us the lead.

What followed was disgraceful. Birmingham’s equaliser came from a free kick. There were three touches and it was in the net. Somehow, we were outnumbered at the back, when it was a free kick …

Then, in typical Rovers style, we backed away from Gardner as he came forwards, gave him room to shoot, and his long range effort found its way into the corner.

Those instances of poor defending were uncharacteristic and extremely frustrating.

However, as usual, there were chances missed. Niko should have scored in the first half, and at one point he was advancing and had a man over but didn’t seek him out. In the second half his strike was saved by Foster and Samba hit the post (events not necessarily in the right order … !)

On the whole, though, I thought we played reasonably well. Last season’s disastrous away form saw us play with little or no confidence, always off the pace. But here, I felt we were the better side and should have won. They looked confident and lively.

Good individual performances from Robbo again, who could do little for either goal but made a couple of good saves, and El-Hadji Diouf, who really can be a tricky winger when he wants to be.

I’m not overly concerned or alarmed by this defeat. Not many would have had us down to win the game and I felt we didn’t look bad on the day.

Bring on the Canaries tomorrow …

I’ll give you one thing I wouldn’t accept bets on, and that’s if Birmingham were to score tomorrow, the Great Harwood lad will be the one who does it.

So that said, I’m hoping for a clean sheet.

I was disappointed when Big Sam got rid of Derbs. There was obviously something there that Allardyce just wasn’t a fan of.

He always looked handy in front of goal and could be relied on to come off the bench and grab a goal if we were struggling to find the net.

It’s ironic that, having allowed this homegrown talent to go to Greece, we ended up in a situation where we had a severe striker shortage and inability to score goals.

Had we kept Derbyshire on, maybe we wouldn’t have found ourselves in such a desperate situation …

Last season’s away form leaves a lot to be desired, but if we can start this season how we left off the last, then maybe things are on the up.

Birmingham away is always a dodgy one for us. They slapped us 3-0 last season (EDIT: Where I came up with that one I don’t know. Indeed it was 2-1 to Birmingham at St Andrews last season!) in one of those typical didn’t-bother-turning-up debacles.

Hopefully, we’ll be as solid as we were against Everton and clinical enough to score a winner. I still say two up front, but that’ll never happen.

There’ll be no David Dunn or, shockingly, Vince Grella, but other than that I think we have a pretty much full-strength side.

It would probably make sense to stick with the same line-up that played against Everton (after Dunn went off), as it did prove successful.

I really can’t call this one, and unfortunately can’t afford to attend the match so will have to find some dodgy live stream on t’interweb, but for argument’s sake I’ll say 2-0 to Rovers. Ever the optimist.

• In other news, I’ve been asked to be the Rovers contact for Absolute Radio’s new phone-in show, hosted by Ian Wright (Wright, Wright). I’ll be on sometime tomorrow between 5pm and 6pm. Listen in if you can …