THERE are plenty of reasons why Roy Keane is an unpopular man with Ipswich Town supporters but top of most charge sheets is the selling of Jordan Rhodes.

Fans were once again given cause to rue the out-of-the-blue summer of 2009 sale of the then-18-year-old frontman on Saturday when he netted both goals in Blackburn’s 2-0 defeat of his old side.

It has unfortunately become a rather too regular occurrence, Rhodes now having taken his total of goals against Town to six in six games. Cheers Roy.

At the time of the controversial sale Rhodes had looked set to make his long anticipated breakthrough into the Town first team.

Having joined the Academy aged 15 from Barnsley for £5,000 when his father Andy came to the club as goalkeeper-coach – he departed just over a year before his son – Rhodes junior had been a regular scorer for the U16s, U18s and then the reserves, six in a remarkable 12-1 second string victory over the MK Dons.

He made his first senior Town appearances from the bench in 2007/08, grabbing what would prove to be his only Blues goal in a 1-1 draw with Cardiff.

The following season he spent spells on loan with Rochdale and then Brentford, scoring nine in 19 games in League Two, and when he returned to the Blues he netted regularly in pre-season.

It was all set up, appetites had been whetted and Rhodes looked to be the Town Academy’s next big success.

And he was. Just not at Town. Huddersfield made an audacious bid – the fee ultimately reached just over a million with top-ups and a sell-on – and Keane, with his eyes firmly set on a splash-the-cash, quick-fix approach to getting the Blues in the Premier League accepted it, much to the frustration of the majority of supporters and those at the club who had nurtured his talent over the previous seasons.

The rest is history, 87 goals in 129 starts and 19 sub appearances for Huddersfield and — following an August 2012 move for £8 million – 80 goals in 142 starts and 10 sub appearances for Rovers.

As well as having seen a player move on for a fee which was a fraction of the figure for which he would subsequently be sold, I think Town fans feel short-changed in a different way.

Seeing players progress from the youth system, into the reserves and then the first team is a tradition of the club, part of being a Town fan. From the likes of John Wark, George Burley and Terry Butcher in the 1970s to Teddy Bishop, Matt Clarke and Josh Emmanuel more recently.

Town supporters may only have got to enjoy watching players such as Darren Bent, Kieron Dyer and Connor Wickham in the blue shirt for a couple of seasons before they moved on but with Rhodes they were denied even that.

And to rub salt into wounds there are now his traditional goals whenever the Blues face Blackburn, on Saturday a penalty and a header in the 12th and 16th minutes which all but settled the match.

Town never looked likely to get back into it against a solid and determined Rovers side.

The Blues look a pale shadow of the team which started the season so brightly – although their early top of the table position was perhaps a touch flattering – with mistakes at the back coming all too regularly.

At the other end of the field, Town lacked the guile to break down the Blackburn defence with last season’s 27-goal Championship top scorer Daryl Murphy having another frustrating afternoon, while the balance of the midfield hasn’t seemed quite right since Kevin Bru was sidelined by injury.

The Blues have now dropped to 12th, although they are only three points off the play-offs and five from second, as we go into the second international break of the campaign.

It’s always somewhat depressing to go into an international break on the back of a defeat, more so when there had been so much optimism when Town were top only a few short weeks ago.

But for Mick McCarthy, his staff and players it’s a chance to regroup and find a solution to the current problems before next week’s home game against Huddersfield.

On the upside, at least the Terriers haven’t got Jordan Rhodes playing for them any more.