SKIPPER Jason Wilcox today spelled out a clear message to any players thinking of jumping ship, following Blackburn Rovers' relegation - If you are not ready to fight for the cause, go now.

Wilcox believes Rovers are capable of bouncing back with players and fans working together.

But he is not interested in anyone, on or off the field, who is not ready to be loyal.

"I'm definitely staying and if anyone doesn't want to stay, then they are not worth bothering about," he said.

"If players don't want to play for the club, we are better off getting rid of them.

"We need players who want to play for Blackburn Rovers and who are proud to wear the shirt.

"Against Manchester United we showed passion and pride and that has been missing in recent weeks.

"And I think it has been missing for a while.

"To be honest it was more frustrating and disappointing after the United game than after Saturday. We are a Premiership club. We are not a small-town Division One club who have just come up and are glad to be in the Premiership. We are a Premiership club.

"But we have had a disastrous season and it's up to us now to pick ourselves up. "We're going to get a lot of stick off the Press, we'll get the same off other punters and it's up to everyone connected with Blackburn, including all the supporters, to be strong, stick together and say 'talk to us next May'.

"Because we'll be straight back in the Premiership, make no mistake about it."

"If we have the players who believe that and have the crowd behind us then we won't go too far wrong."

Wilcox accepts Rovers deserved to take the drop.

"Wednesday was a bad night all round," he said.

"But we scraped out of it a couple of years ago and maybe we weren't good enough this year.

"I don't think we were good enough and, if we had got out of it, I think we would have been lucky.

"The manager's been unfortunate with injuries but we can't keep harping on about that.

"At the end of the day we weren't good enough."

"I think the fans have been great all season, not just in the last couple of games.

"The supporters have been brilliant to me in the last few years and I want to repay that.

"I'm disappointed not only for myself but also for the supporters, the club, Jack Walker and everyone connected with Blackburn Rovers. "It's not an individual thing. There will be Premiership clubs coming in and trying to buy players but I am not interested in going.

"This is a great club and I stand by my decision to sign that five-year contract.

"It's going to be a year out of my career that I don't need to be honest.

"But the club needs to rebuild and be sorted out. We need to get the structure right from the bottom, the manager is doing that and I can only see great things happening for Blackburn Rovers within the next 10 years.

"I think we need to rebuild now and we need the supporters to stand by us.

"If any fans think 'there's no way I am buying a season ticket now' okay. It's the same as any players who don't want to play in Division One - let them go.

"The main supporters and the main players will stick with the club and they are the kind of people we need."

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