CRAIG Conway insists Blackburn Rovers’ failure to so far live up to their play-off promise is not for the want of trying.

Rovers fans anticipated a push for promotion after finishing last season two points outside the top six.

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But they are now all but consigned to seeing their side spend another year in the Championship after Tuesday’s home loss to Norwich City.

Rovers, having been sixth three months ago, are now 15 points behind that position after winning just three of their last 14 league matches.

But, with a trip to high-flying Bournemouth to come on Saturday, followed by a big FA Cup quarter-final clash at Liverpool on Sunday week, Conway says they have to ‘keep going’.

“There is nobody in the squad who you could say is not trying,” said the winger, whose own resurgence in form has been in stark contrast to Rovers’.

“Everybody is working hard – the manager, the coaches and the players – and I don’t think we could work any harder.

“We’re all wanting to go in the right direction but sometimes it’s not meant to be.

“It’s just a case of trying to put things right on the pitch and starting to improve results.

“We’ve got a lot of games coming up with the first being a really tough game at Bournemouth.

“I don’t think the teams who are beating us are that much better than us as I genuinely believe we’ve got a squad as strong as anybody in the league and, on our day, we can beat anybody.

“But it’s no good saying it, we’ve got to start proving it, and hopefully we can do that against Bournemouth on Saturday.

“Then we’ve obviously got the massive cup game coming up so there are things to play for.

“But we’ve just got to take it one game at a time and keep going.”

The Rovers players cut dejected figures after Bradley Johnson’s stunning late strike condemned them to a 2-1 defeat to Norwich that came on the back of a 1-1 draw at home to basement boys Blackpool.

“It’s very hard to take and I’m lost for words a wee bit,” said Conway, who admitted both of the Canaries’ second-half goals could have been defended better.

“First half especially we put them under a lot of pressure and I think we made them make a lot of mistakes.

“That was a plan of ours as they are a good side and one of the favourites to go up, even automatically, because they’ve got class all around the pitch.

“But I thought we matched them and when we went in at half-time 1-0 up I thought we could go on and maybe get a second.

“But that didn’t happen and I felt they hung in there, took their goals well and done what we haven’t been doing and ground it out.

“We’re so disappointed, especially following the disappointment of the Blackpool game, as we wanted to go out and get a victory.

“It wasn’t to be and it’s hard to take but we’ve just got to go again.”