The Blackburn Rovers chairman, John Williams, will not even contemplate the thought, let alone discuss it at any length, but he will stick with Sam Allardyce even if they are relegated at the end of the season.

Blackburn's injury-plagued midfielder Steven Reid will miss the rest of the season after suffering another knee problem.

When you are newly-promoted and are finding the Premier League an unforgiving place, you welcome crumbs like a feast. West Bromwich Albion probably feel they should have got more yesterday, but they came away from the Reebok with their first point of the season.

Blackburn have agreed an undisclosed fee with Coca-Cola League One side Northampton for goalkeeper Mark Bunn.

Australia international Vince Grella has joined Blackburn on a four-year contract, becoming manager Paul Ince's fifth signing.

Blackburn have agreed to sign Manchester United full-back Danny Simpson on a one-year loan.

The shuffling of goalkeepers between Premier League clubs began in earnest yesterday with Blackburn close to caving in to Brad Friedel's demand that he be allowed to move to Aston Villa, who face competition from Manchester City, while Liverpool sold Scott Carson to West Bromwich Albion in a deal that could rise to £3.75m.

Tottenham were at the centre of two of the biggest potential transfer deals of the summer last night with talks under way for David Bentley to join from Blackburn Rovers for a deal worth up to £17m. At the same time, Manchester United, whose chief executive, David Gill, has returned from holiday to take care of transfer business, were informed that they need to bid closer to £30m to sign the Spurs striker Dimitar Berbatov.

Kevin Phillips' joy at scoring his 200th League goal turned to disappointment as West Bromwich Albion missed out on a victory that would have lifted them into third place in the Championship last night.

Juande Ramos is expected to wait until the end of the season before appointing a goalkeeping coach.