A week later, after Kean had travelled with the players to the capital on Friday for the game against Charlton, he attended a press conference in the afternoon, but news came at 7pm that he had resigned.

The sudden and unexpected nature of Kean's departure meant assistant manager Eric Black was the obvious choice for caretaker.

Berg's reign began with disappointment, his debut game against Crystal Palace marked the end of Blackburn's unbeaten away run.

Appleton took training on the Monday and wasted no time bring in his own staff, choosing Ashley Westwood as the assistant manager and John Keeley as goalkeeping coach.

Rovers started slowly and the poor atmosphere partly blamed by the presence of the Venky's who had visited Ewood Park to watch the game.

Rovers conceded first, but failed to establish control despite pulling a goal back from Jordan Rhodes, Charlton quickly retook the lead and the game finished 2–1 to the away team.

At the third attempt, Rovers managed their first victory under Appleton with a conclusive 3–0 win over Derby County in the 4th round of the FA cup.

In the east Lancashire derby against Burnley, Rovers stole a point with a last gasp strike deep into stoppage time scored by David Dunn.

The Hillsborough defeat put Rovers in the Championship's bottom three and left fans with deep fears of a second successive relegation.

Many supporters were then left puzzled as Gary Bowyer was asked to travel to India with Paul Agnew and Derek Shaw to meet the owners ahead of a crucial home game against Derby.

A 4–0 loss at Watford kept them in the mix but then followed a comeback triumph at Millwall that put Rovers five points away from the relegation zone with only two games left to play.

Jordan Rhodes netted again but his tally of 29 league goals left him one behind Championship top scorer Glenn Murray, of Crystal Palace.