Blackburn Rovers Football Club

• Nickname:Rovers
• Founded:1875
• Manager:Michael Appleton

• Ground:Ewood Park
• Capacity:31367

Hughes still has Euro hope

16 Mar 2008 - 12:55:35

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Blackburn Rovers manager Mark Hughes has refused to give up on Europe despite Saturday's 2-1 defeat at West Ham.

Rovers remained eighth in the table after Roque Santa Cruz's first-half opener was cancelled out by strikes from Dean Ashton and teenage debutant Freddie Sears.

However, Aston Villa's defeat at Portsmouth kept Rovers in touch with the three other teams challenging for a place in next season's UEFA Cup.

"We allowed them back in and I have to say we were poor," he told the club's official website.

"I just felt maybe there wasn't enough drive in our play to try and win the game and to make the most of the opportunities that we had.

"It wasn't one of our better performances and on this occasion we haven't got anything for our efforts, but it may be not as bad as it could have possibly been.

"Villa have also been beaten, so maybe there is not too much damage done.

"But we are running out of games. We need to win more games than we lose from now until the end of the season, so losing today it makes it more difficult for us."