Hughes To Treat Cup With Respect

Blackburn Rovers will NOT be wanting to complete a hat trick on Wednesday Evening, as defeat would mean three defeats in a row in three different competitions.

Birmingham City are the opponents in the Carling Cup third round, and after successive defeats in the UEFA Cup and Premiership we will ALL be keen to avoid another defeat. However, with Rovers boss Mark Hughes insisting that he will be treating the Carling Cup with respect he WILL be selecting a strong side as he wants to go far in the Cup.

Hughes told the Official Blackburn Rovers website: "As ever, we are looking to progress.

"We have always viewed cup competitions as a good vehicle for us, believing that they can have a positive impact and historically that is what has happened.

"We've had decent runs in the League Cup and the FA Cup and we've enjoyed them, so we'll try to do the same again this time around.

"We've tried to go in with teams that can win the ties and more often than not we have. It is only when we come up against top four sides in the latter stages (semi-finals) that we've been beaten - usually by the eventual winners of the competitions."

I'm delighted to hear that Hughes will be going for it in the Carling Cup as it is a competition that Rovers could win (and we are no strangers to winning it are we!), so why not go for it.