Hughes: We're still good

Rovers defiant despite defeat

By Steven Morrison   Last updated: 25th September 2007

Mark Hughes

Hughes: Defiant

Related links

Teams

Also see

Blackburn manager Mark Hughes insists his side are still a good team, despite losing two consecutive matches.

Rovers were on a run of 15 games unbeaten before they came unstuck against Greek side Larissa in the Uefa Cup last week and have since been overturned by Portsmouth.

And Hughes is sticking by his team and says it is 'unrealistic' to expect them to go unbeaten all season.

"We are not beating ourselves up and we know we have to just get back on track," he said.

"We've had a couple of setbacks but we know we are still a good team.

"There are certainly no great problems with the make-up of the team. Two results have gone against us but prior to that we had gone 15 games without defeat.

"It is unrealistic to expect us to be unbeaten in every game."

Carling Cup

Rovers will be looking to turn things around starting with a win against Birmingham in Wednesday's Carling Cup tie.

Hughes will be without defender Ryan Nelsen for the match, but has revealed the New Zealand international's hamstring injury is not as bad as first thought.

"We've had good news from Ryan's scan," he added. "His hamstring is fine and it's just a bit of scar tissue which has released itself. He's had a similar feeling before and was back very quickly."