BLACKBURN Rovers make the trip to the Cardiff City Stadium tonight against the backdrop of increasing fan unrest.

‘We want Venky’s out’ was chanted at Saturday’s 3-0 reverse at Wigan Athletic – just had it been in the final two games of last season after Paul Lambert announced his decision to leave.

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Rovers fans have also made clear their thoughts on the club’s owners this week by making the hashtag #venkysout trend on Twitter – just as they did in the summer in the days leading up to Owen Coyle’s unveiling as Lambert’s replacement.

While the club’s start to the Championship season has served to exacerbate the situation, feelings of anger, resentment and despair among the Ewood Park fanbase stretches back to when Venky’s took control of the club in November 2010.

Back then Rovers had £20m of debt and were 11th in the Premier League.

Fast forward nearly six years and, at the last count, they were £100m in debt and, after the heavy defeats to Wigan and Norwich City, they are now bottom of the Championship, too.

It is a position Coyle’s side will look to lift themselves up from this evening when they face a Cardiff team searching for their first goal and first win of the campaign.

While the ire of supporters may in the main have been fixed on Venky’s at the DW Stadium, the manager and players also came in for criticism with cries of ‘Coyle sort it out’ and ‘you’re not fit to wear the shirt’ heard from the away end in a first half Wigan dominated.

Rovers boss Coyle said: “I certainly understand the fans’ frustration. First and foremost I’m a fan myself.

“When you follow your team you want your team to win every week and you want to see them defending well, creating chances and everything that goes with it. We didn’t defend well enough on Saturday.

“We were backed by huge numbers and we felt for those fans. I totally understand why the fans would be frustrated. Nobody is shying away from that.

“We have to make sure we turn those comments the other way, and the only way we can turn them is by doing well, winning games and working hard. That’s what we need to do.”

Coyle’s appointment to the Ewood hotseat in June did not go down well with Rovers supporters.

And he said yesterday: “I came in with my eyes wide open. I always knew it was going to be a big job.

“I came in knowing if we didn’t start well I’d be open to criticism, having been the Burnley manager and everything else, but we are working our socks off every day to get a team we think can be representative of Blackburn Rovers.

“We’re certainly not there yet as we’ve shown in the two games, but moving forward we will get to where we want to be.”