CARDIFF, Feb 22 - If the form book is followed, Blackburn Rovers’ first appearance in a League Cup final on Sunday will be a chastening experience.

Reeling after 10 premier league defeats in their last 12 matches, Graeme Souness’s side are also shorn of several key players for their clash with cup specialists Tottenham Hotspur in the first showpiece occasion of the English domestic season.

On November 3 Blackburn were eighth in the premier league in their first season back since winning promotion. Now they are 18th, facing a battle to survive, and have lost their last four league games.

It is a far from perfect build-up to Sunday’s game at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, where Blackburn will be contesting their first major cup final since 1960.

Souness, who earned a reputation as a doughty competitor playing for Liverpool and Scotland, will ensure his players do not shirk the challenge, but the Scot is also a realist.

He openly admits that he would swap cup glory for the financial benefits of premier league football next season.

Blackburn will be without Turkish playmaker Tugay Kerimoglu, captain Garry Flitcroft and defender Craig Short on Sunday, all due to suspension. Australian Lucas Neill is ineligible.

Turkish defender Hakan Unsal’s work permit won’t have arrived in time for the match but new Spanish loan signing Jorge ‘Yordi’ Gonzalez will make his debut at some stage.

Sunday could mark the end of the League Cup competition in its current form, although the 20 premier league clubs voted on Thursday to support it and continue the policy of the winners qualifying for Europe.

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