Ince on the brink as Rovers drown their sorrows

DUBLIN might regard itself as one of the party capitals of Europe, but it is the last place you would expect a find a bunch of Premier League footballers who had just suffered a sixth straight defeat, their team five points adrift of safety, and manager on the brink of being sacked.

Unless you happen to play for Blackburn Rovers, that is. As if life was not farcical enough at Ewood Park under Ince, Blackburn’s team boarded a flight to the Irish capital for their Christmas knees-up just hours after a catastrophic defeat at Wigan.

Around the same time as their plane was touching down in Dublin, around 3,000 dejected Rovers supporters who made the short journey to Wigan were conducting their own inquests into a dire performance which is likely to spell the end of Ince’s brief six-month reign.