GRAEME Souness watched Charlton's champagne celebrations at Ewood last night and told Blackburn Rovers fans -- with a bit of luck that could be us next year.

There were no guarantees of success from the Ewood boss. But he believes he knows what is needed to transform a team which has massively under-achieved this season after being the red-hot tip to fill the place now taken by champions Charlton.

And Souness did not duck the question when asked if he felt he could find the successful formula.

"Yes, with a bit of luck," he declared.

"You need a bit of luck in everything you do. But, if we are patient and careful and have a bit of luck with the ones we bring in, yes.

"We talk about the gap between the First Division and the Premiership and I go along with that. It's enormous.

"But Charlton will know what's needed from last year. Alan Curbishley doesn't need me to tell him.

"At the same time, I know what we need. I have my own problems."

Souness was the first to admit he did not particularly enjoy seeing Charlton celebrate their title success -- even though he readily acknowledged they deserved it. "It's a strange feeling to be at someone else's party and it's not one I would imagine any opposing manager would feel comfortable with," he said. "But it's maybe a nice litle reminder of what we have to achieve next year. And we must be a confident team from the first game next season."

The manager sees confidence as a key factor and repeated his views that a mass clearout is not on the cards.

"It's not a case of 10 out and 10 in, I don't see it that way," he explained.

"I think we have some good players here who have maybe lost their way a little bit.

"But it's not the first time since I've been here they've had a miserable first half and improved in the second half.

"Or the other way round.

"So it's all about correcting that. It was a disappointing first half, we looked nervous with our play, our passing, with everything we did.

"But I thought we did improve in the second half.

"As I have said before, the priority is to win games closely followed by entertaining. We didn't do that in the first half. We gave the fans very little to shout about.

"The second half was better."

Three of Ewood's international players are set to miss out on this week's friendlies, after collecting problems over the Easter weekend.

Callum Davidson was the most obvious casualty after collapsing in a heap with an ankle injury at Ewood last night. He was due to travel to Holland with Scottish team-mate Christian Dailly.

But Souness is hopeful that Davidson's injury is nothing serious. "We don't know what he has done for sure. He went over on his ankle and has been for an x-ray and there is no sign of anything at the moment," said the manager.

"With bone injuries, however, things can sometimes show a couple of days further down the line.

"But he's gone over on it and that's all I can really say."

Jason McAteer and Damien Duff are also set to miss the Republic of Ireland's midweek game.

"Damien was left out last night because he has had a virus hanging about him and didn't feel 100 per cent," said Souness.

"I am going to speak to Mick McCarthy. Also Jason has bruising on his calf which he received in the Grimsby game.

"It's stil causing him some pain and he played when he wasn't quite 100 per cent.

"So he won't be travelling either."

But their absence could mean a return for Lee Carsley.

Souness said before Easter that, with several players facing the prospect of possibly four matches in eight days, he would be bearing the crowded programme in mind when it came to team selection.

"We picked a team with that in mind. We played a hard game at Grimsby and Easter is a difficult time for players. We had to share the workload," he added.

Rovers Reserves take on Newcastle at Ewood tonight (kick-off 7pm).