LONDON - PAUL Ince has blamed his demise at Blackburn on the club's failure to quash speculation about his future, which unsettled his players, and says he still has the ability to manage in the Premier League.

Breaking his silence on his sacking last month, the 41-year-old former Manchester United and Liverpool midfielder said Rovers should have given him more time to prove himself in the Premier League.

Rovers fired Ince after a run of 11 league matches without a win left the club in the relegation zone, where they remain under Sam Allardyce - level on points with bottom-place West Bromwich Albion.

'The disappointing thing for me was that the board didn't come out at the time and squash (the criticism) and say, 'You are staying here until after the Christmas period,'' Ince said in a Sky Sports interview broadcast on Friday. 'If that had happened it would have stopped the press writing things and unsettling my players.

'It is important that you stand by your manager through thick and thin. I felt at the time we could have gone for another five or six games and seen where we were then.' Ince accepts he made mistakes, but insists he can still manage a top side.

'You need to mold your own team and bring in certain players and staff, but I did not have the time to do that,' Ince said. 'I feel that I am a Premiership manager, but I was not allowed to be a Premiership manager.

'My confidence has not changed one little bit. I still feel I can do it.'

Blackburn was only Ince's third management job, after stints in the fourth tier of English football at Macclesfield and MK Dons, with whom he won promotion to League One.

'I am happy to go down to the (League) Championship or the first division,' he said. 'I am still learning my trade, but if a Premiership job came up I'd like to think I might be in the running.' -- AP