Blackburn Rovers chairman John Williams has hit back at Portsmouth boss Tony Adams over his criticism of the sacking of Paul Ince.

Adams, who played alongside Ince for England, reckons the best home-grown managerial talent is being killed off by chairmen not willing to give young bosses enough time.

But Williams said: "Tony Adams is entitled to his own view but I won't have it be said Blackburn Rovers are trigger-happy or that we are not prepared to give young British managers a chance.

"We've given two a chance - Mark Hughes and Paul Ince - and I'm happy to stand by that record. We're very disappointed we couldn't stick with Paul.

"This is a club where the last two appointments pre-Paul were circa four years each. Both ended up leaving us. We didn't moan, we just got on with business and went from there.

"I maintain that if we had our time over again, Paul ticked lots of boxes. And, by the way, who is suggesting this episode is not going to make Paul a better manager? Nobody at Blackburn is saying Paul isn't going to be a good manager. It just wasn't going anywhere for him after an unusual start to the season.

"We had a good start, we were seventh after seven games and then we hit the buffers with an almighty smack. We haven't won for nearly three months in the league and the form was not getting any better. It is disappointing, but it's the pressures of the Premier League.

"There was a time that when clubs got relegated, tomatoes were thrown at directors' cars and fans simply lost the bragging rights in the pub.

"These days you might end up losing your business if you're not careful. This club has been around for a long time - 1875 - and the current board did what we had to do to preserve it.

"It was felt, albeit reluctantly, that a change was necessary."