Soccer: Blackburn have announced the sacking of manager Henning Berg and his coaching staff after less than eight weeks in charge of the club. Berg, who signed a three-year contract on October 31st, oversaw his 10th match of the season on St Stephen's Day - a 1-0 defeat at Middlesbrough which saw them slip to 17th in the Championship table.

The result marked their fifth loss in six outings, while the former Rovers defender has managed to steer them to just one victory in his 57 days in charge.

The 43-year-old, who replaced the much-maligned Steve Kean, took the reigns ahead of their 2-0 defeat at Crystal Palace early in November but has done little to revive their fortunes since.

His time at Ewood Park has hardly been a happy one, with a statement released earlier this month playing down claims that he had stormed out of the club's Christmas party after an alleged bust-up.

Wednesday's latest defeat prompted talks between the club's owners, Venky's, in India, after the game was screened back to them.

An official statement on www.rovers.co.uk read: "Blackburn Rovers FC has announced the departure of manager Henning Berg, assistant manager Eric Black, first team coach Iain Brunskill and goalkeeping coach Bobby Mimms with immediate effect.

"This decision has been taken following a very disappointing sequence of results. The club thanks the four men for their efforts and wishes them every success for the future."

Venky's director Balaji Rao was quoted in The Times of India as saying: "We have not been doing well and dropping points and losing matches quite often. I want to go up."

Former manager Mark Hughes - sacked as QPR boss earlier this season - is the early bookies' favourite to replace Berg.