Blackburn Rovers have ended in penultimate position this year and have been relegated to the Championship after 11 seasons in the top flight. In many ways, the writing was on the wall for the whole season, which was a way of the cross for manager Steve Kean. The Rovers boss had to endure some heavy and at times violent criticism from the fans, who never warmed up to him since he was appointed last season by owners Venkys in replacement of Sam Allardyce. Kean brought in strikers Yakubu and David Goodwillie, along with Serbian midfielder Radoslav Petrovic as his main reinforcements in the summer. His side started the season with three straight defeats and had little to smile about till Christmas, with only two wins condemning them to the lower reaches of the table. A surprise win at Old Trafford on New Year's Eve did trigger a temporary revival of their fortunes but it was short lived. The loss of captain Chris Samba in the January transfer window did little to help shore up a leaky defence while infuriating the fans further. Kean signed Anthony Modeste, Marcus Olsson and Bradley Orr in January which didn't drastically improve the side. The Rovers boss had a good strike force in the shape of Yakubu and David Hoillett, who were usually supported by Morten Gamst Pedersen and David Dunn in midfield and Steven N'Zonzi in the deep role. At the back, after the departure of Samba, Grant Hanley was promoted to the first team alonsgide Gael Givet in central defence with Orr and Martin Olsson at full backs. Latin duo Rochina and Forminca were seldom used from the start as well as midfielders Petrovic and Vukcevic. There was hope that a good run of results in March would signal a late push towards safety for Rovers. With three wins in five games they extracted themselves momentarily from the bottom three but couldn't sustain that effort. In the end, they faded disappointingly in the final nine games of the campaign with only one win in the process and had to accept their fate on their last home game of the season with a defeat to escape artists Wigan.
