Baz happy to have found his feet

The tenacious midfielder was given star billing when quitting Rangers for Blackburn but he had a sticky start to his Ewood Park career.

Rovers' awful advent to the campaign did not help Ferguson who also had off-field troubles to contend with as there were problems with his new house.

However, Rovers' revival has coincided with Ferguson finding his form in England and he is determined to carry on improving and prove his detractors wrong.

"The first month was difficult for me and I admit my performances were not up to scratch," Ferguson told the Sunday Herald.

"I always set myself high standards and I was still getting to know my team-mates then. In the last month or two I've been really happy with the way I've been playing."

Ferguson is determined to build on his form over the last few weeks and prove that Rovers chief Graeme Souness was right to prise him away from Ibrox.

"I hear all these people saying that they don't know if I can cut it down here, but that's one of the reasons I came down here in the first place - to show what I could do against teams like Arsenal," he added.

"Patrick Vieira is a quality player and someone I admire, but I played against my hero Roy Keane two weeks ago.

"They're all quality players down here, so playing against Vieira maybe isn't such a big deal."

Ferguson is still smarting from Scotland's exit at the hands of Holland in the Euro 2004 play-offs, but feels they are capable of qualifying for the next World Cup.

‚Ç£I think some people were over-confident after the first game because we got such a good result at Hampden," he said about the Holland defeat.

"There are positives to take from the campaign, but we have still got a very long way to go before we can class ourselves as a good team."

Looking ahead to the World Cup qualifiers, where Scotland will face Italy, Slovenia, Norway, Belarus and Moldova, Ferguson added: "It isn't the worst group for us to be honest.

"We've definitely got a chance. I think you have to be positive."