Davies' gift for new Kidd

This morning, as he takes the first step on a journey which will carry him to fulfilment or unemployment, it is to be hoped that those around Brian Kidd do the decent thing and advise him of where lie the potholes which litter the route he has chosen.

Kidd's boyish face has never looked quite as childlike as it did on Saturday lunchtime. Quite often the price of ambition is isolation and loneliness, and despite his last experience of management - two months at Preston in 1986 - the new manager of Blackburn Rovers looked for all the world like a little boy lost.

Kidd's sense of unease at the pre-match press conference was almost tangible and it may well be that from a tabloid perspective his tenure will serve to make Kenny Dalglish's reign come to represent the halcyon days of verbal diarrhoea.

But Kidd was tempted away from Manchester United not to deliver edifying monologues but to help lead the Blackburn lemmings back from the edge of the cliff.

"It's a big job and a huge responsibility," he admitted, as if to prove he is already conversant with the art of the managerial understatement.

Just as well that Blackburn's benefactor Jack Walker has deep pockets, nimble fingers and a generous demeanour. And so, depending upon which source you trust, Kidd will be handed £25 million, £35 million or £40 million to throw at a problem of someone else's making.

Indeed, Roy Hodgson's legacy to a club who neither mourned his passing nor the cruel manner of its execution, is to have created a squad so bitter and twisted that it has lost sight of its primary objectives.

That those players won this game was due neither to Kidd's arrival nor to their skills, but to simple good fortune. Charlton Athletic actually seemed more affected by the sight of Kidd's gesturing on the touchline than Blackburn and were settling back to protect a point when they were undone with 15 minutes left.

In a perverse sport it was always probable that the £7.25 million striker Kevin Davies would score for Kidd as, among other things, it was his failure to so do for Hodgson which had prompted Uncle Jack to write out another redundancy cheque.

Davies's effort from 25 yards should have been saved but fumbling tame shots is becoming second nature to Sasa Ilic and once his careless fingers had done their work, the issue was decided.

Martin Edwards yesterday denied Brian Kidd's claims that he had not been offered a new deal to stay at Old Trafford. The Manchester United chief executive insisted that he did make an increased pay offer to the former United number two, "Brian was on a very good contract anyway which was renewed last summer in a new four-year agreement. We sat down with him and certainly did offer him more money, there is no question about that."

Edwards also denied any suggestion of intervention by the television company BSkyB, which has lodged a £623.4 million bid for the club.

"That is absolute nonsense," he said. "I did, out of sheer courtesy, speak to (Sky's representative) Mark Booth about it, and he gave me his backing to make any deal with Brian Kidd that I thought was suitable."

Blackburn Rovers: Fettis, Davidson, Henchoz, Gallacher (Davies 42), Duff, Blake, McKinlay, Johnson, Croft, Dailly, Dunn (Broomes 83). Subs Not Used: Marcolin, Taylor, Williams. Booked: Dunn. Goals: Davies 75.

Charlton Athletic: Ilic, Mills, Powell, Redfearn, Rufus, Youds, Kinsella, Hunt, Mendonca (Jones 66), Robinson, Mortimer (Newton 57). Subs Not Used: Barness, Tiler, Royce. Booked: Redfearn, Kinsella, Youds.

Referee: G Poll (Tring).