Kean vows to fight on at Rovers

Blackburn Rovers manager Steve Kean has vowed to fight on despite further calls for his sacking after the 4-0 loss to Manchester City at Ewood Park.

The Scot, who replaced Sam Allardyce in December, has been under pressure from Rovers fans since last year despite keeping the side in the Premier League on the last day of the season away to Wolves.

A protest by disgruntled fans took place before the dramatic 4-3 victory over Arsenal a fortnight ago but chants of ‘Kean out’ were heard by fans throughout the loss to Roberto Mancini’s men, in which second-half goals from Adam Johnson, Mario Balotelli, Samir Nasri and Stefan Savic put the hosts to the sword.

A number of Rovers followers stayed behind after the final whistle to express their displeasure but the Blackburn chief insists that he’s fully committed to the club.

When asked if he intended to see things through, Kean responded: “Yes, 100 per cent absolutely.”

“I don’t know what the percentage (of fans calling for his sacking) is, but if the fans want to vent their anger at me, I’d rather they vent it at me than at the team because I’ll battle their corner,” he said.

“They’re my players and I’ll take the criticism on my shoulders and take it away from them.”

“It’s certainly not enjoyable (hearing the chants), I think you’d have to have a perverse brain if you were enjoying that but it’s certainly something I can take on the chin.”

“When it’s not going well, it’s the responsibility of the manager to take that responsibility and when things go well like they did against Arsenal, I will always reflect and give that praise back to the lads.”

“There’s always going to be a section of the fans that aren’t happy at any club and they wanted to show that by staying in the ground and putting out banners but all we can do as a team is react and stick together.”

The Scot also delivered a message to the club’s fans, asking for them to give the players and himself time to turn things around.

“Bear with us – we’ll turn it round,” he said.

“We have lots of players that are new players, lots of players that are young players who will take a little bit longer so just bear with us and realise what we’re trying to do, how we’re trying to play and we’ll get there but they need to stick with us.”

Kean was also disappointed with the second half performance, claiming that the team felt sorry for themselves after conceding to Adam Johnson’s opening wonder strike.

“A couple of weeks ago when we played Arsenal we got a fantastic result and most of the fans went home very happy and we lose today and the fans aren’t happy, as the players aren’t and I’m not happy myself.”

“I think we’ve got to take it into perspective. For the first 55 minutes I thought the shape of our team was good, I thought the organisation was very good and we minimised the chances of Manchester City.”

“It’s taken a very good goal and it was a fantastic finish.”

“We then felt a little bit sorry for ourselves and conceded another and once you’re 2-0 behind, with the amount of changes they had made from the midweek game, they had a freshness about them and it was very difficult for us to get into any type of rhythm after that.”