RAY Harford has no trouble picking out the double whammy which caused him the most pain during the season just ended - the injuries to Graeme Le Saux and Ian Pearce.

The Blackburn Rovers boss had to cope manfully with a season that had more lows than highs, an unprecedented injury list and the ultimate disappointment of nothing to show for all the effort put in.

Yet, while it may have left him feeling a little bloodied, Harford is also unbowed.

And he completed his first campaign in charge at Ewood, optimistic that Rovers are now in even better shape than 12 months previously when they were celebrating the championship success.

Throughout an eventful campaign, the manager refused to blame an horrendous casualty list for the various catastrophes - an awful start to the defence of the title, failure in Europe and FA Cup embarrassment against Ipswich to name three.

But, now the dust has settled, he revealed: "I thought we had the best back four in the country and, with Jeff Kenna, five of the best defenders in the Premiership by far.

"One of our strengths was that we were always good as a back four and the thing that hurt me most was losing Graeme Le Saux and Ian Pearce.

"Not just losing them but knowing how long we were going to be without them. "I think you nearly always see teams struggle when they lose their best defenders. It has happened to Manchester United when they were without Gary Pallister and then Steve Bruce.

"The loss of Graeme Le Saux hit us particularly hard, because we were already without Jason Wilcox and you could see what a difference he makes when he came back.

"We thought we had Kevin Gallacher to play on the left but we were without him for a long time as well.

"Fortunately we got Jeff Kenna back, after he was hurt in the Charity Shield, but the left hand side proved a problem and we had Tim Sherwood and David Batty filling in there for a time. But it was like square pegs in round holes.

"There were a lot more injuries, with players out for months at a time.

"But what made it even worse was that the people we lost were those who could play two or three different positions."

With the injury situation continuing to improve, however, Harford now believes he has a squad most clubs would envy.

And he aims to add one or two more major signings in summer if at all possible. "I have looked at things over the last couple of weeks and, personnel-wise, I believe we are now much stronger than when we were going for the League," he said.

"It's as good a squad as anybody's. It's very strong and a lot of them are still young players."

Harford believes many of Rovers' problems in the first half of the season stemmed from a reaction to winning the championship and the stress and strain of playing big games Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday virtually every week right up to Christmas.

He felt media criticism of some of the club's European performances was exaggerated but made a pertinent point when he said:

"We thought playing Spartak at home in the first game was a good fixture.

"But as they emerged as by far the strongest team in the group, we might have been better off meeting one of the others with the chance to get off to a good start.

"That would have helped confidence."

Injuries started to bite, however, and having failed to strengthen sufficiently during the summer, Rovers were partly to blame themselves for their poor showing.

As for the away form, which thankfully picked up in the second half of the season to avoid any unwanted records, the manager admitted to being puzzled. But he did have one theory which seemed valid.

"Last year, we were in the habit of taking the lead and that gives you something to hold onto," he said.

"In many games this season, we have fallen behind and then you are chasing the game.

"It's significant that, in every away game where we have taken the lead, we got something from it."

Rovers finished a respectable seventh, something of an anti-climax in view of the previous season's conclusion.

But it could have been a lot worse and they did keep themselves in with a chance of claiming a UEFA Cup place until the final minutes of a long, hard season.

"That is to the credit of the players," said Harford.

"Considering all the setbacks, I think they have been terrific.

"And the fans have done well for us too. When they get behind the team as they did at the Newcastle match, the players respond as they did and it makes it very special.

"The supporters should never underestimate how big a part they can play in helping to bring success to the club."

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