Blackburn Rovers have announced manager Paul Ince has been "relieved of his duties" at the club. A brief statement on the club website said: "The Board, having selected Paul back in June, were desperate for him to succeed and wanted to give him as much time as possible in the unforgiving environment of the Premier League management where time is such a precious commodity.

Blackburn chairman John Williams said: "Three wins in 17 games has seen a squad, which finished seventh last season, fall to 19th position. We are currently in real danger of becoming detached from the pack.

"The survival of the club in the Premier League is paramount and our focus now is on finding a replacement who will be able to maintain our top division status.

"Paul will bounce back, he is a fighter and we wish him well."

Ince leaves with the club second bottom of the league.

Ince was appointed in June on a three-year contract and, despite a promising start to the campaign, saw performances and results begin to deteriorate.

The club have not won since September 27 at Newcastle and reports of dressingroom unrest began to emerge.

Saturday's 3-0 defeat at Wigan was one of the worst performances of that spell and ultimately cost Ince his job.

The search is now on for his replacement with former Rovers boss Graeme Souness the favourite to return, with veteran midfielder Tugay possibly in a player-coach role.

Ex-Bolton and Newcastle manager Sam Allardyce, who was considered in the summer before Ince got the job, appeared to rule himself out of the running at the weekend.

Former Blackburn striker Kevin Gallacher believes Ince was unlucky that circumstances conspired against him. He said: "I think you need time to get in and blend your own style.

"Unfortunately for Paul a lot of things went wrong, two of his best players were going when he arrived, there was no money to spend, players he brought in were injured and it never settled down.

"I don't think Paul knew his best XI and I think that was the problem. When you are letting in an awful lot of goals you've got to rectify it and he didn't quite do that."