Souness slams players

Blackburn manager Graeme Souness rounded on his players after they were left facing an uphill task in the UEFA Cup.

Two goals from Souleymane Youla and another from Josip Stoko gave Genclerbirligi the advantage in Ankara.

However, Brett Emerton’s consolation could yet prove crucial in the second leg in two weeks.

Souness said: “We didn’t play in the first half. We only started in the second half and by that stage we were 2-0 down.

“I thought some of our players approached the game thinking it was going to be easy and we just didn’t perform.

“Defensively we conceded three very poor goals. We got ourselves back in the game at 2-1 and at that point I thought we would go on and make it 2-2.

“But then we conceded a very poor third goal.”

Souness said he thought his side should have had a couple of penalties.

But he is refusing to give up yet on their hopes of reaching the second round.

Souness said: “I thought we maybe should have had a penalty when Ciccio (Corrado Grabbi) was pulled down and Steven Reid maybe should have had a penalty too.

“Maybe their second was off side but that’s secondary in my mind.

“The number one thing is we didn’t defend well and we didn’t start right.

“But the tie is not over. There is still a hard 90 minutes for both teams to come.”