BLACKBURN Rovers goalkeeper Brad Friedel today insisted Saturday's home reverse against Tottenham Hotspur was strictly a 'one-off'.

Rovers' recent revival came shuddering to a halt as Spurs clinched a rare away victory courtesy of Robbie Keane's 56th minute strike.

It was a damaging defeat for Mark Hughes' side, who had gone five games unbeaten prior to that to haul themselves off the foot of the Premiership.

A desperately disappointed Hughes saw it as an opportunity missed, particularly as all of the bottom three had lost earlier in the day.

But Friedel believes the set-back was a blip and he's backing Rovers to bounce back at fellow strugglers Crystal Palace on Saturday.

"As with sport, every now and again things like that can happen so hopefully it's a one-off, we'll have a good week in training, and get a good result at the weekend," said Friedel.

"If that happens then I think it's safe to say this was a one-off. If it doesn't then maybe there's other issues that we have to address.

"But we're moving in the right direction.

"This is another character test for us. It's a minor set-back. Hopefully, this will be a step back for 10 steps forward.

"You don't learn as much when you're always winning. You learn a heck of a lot more when you're losing and these things happen to you so, hopefully, we'll come back stronger for this."

Hughes blamed poor defending for his side's second home Premiership defeat of the season.

Michael Brown shrugged off a couple of flimsy challenges before running half the length of the field to set up Keane for the winner and that rather summed up Rovers' performance on the day.

"We didn't play particularly well," said Friedel.

"I think we've shown a lot of character over the last five or six games but it wasn't to be (on Saturday).

"At times we looked solid but to give the goal away that we did when their man ran 70 yards with the ball wasn't good.

"I'm sure the staff will address that when we get back to work and hopefully we'll return to winning ways at the weekend."

In the meantime, Mark Hughes faces a trip back to his native Wales after the draw for the FA Cup third round threw up an intriguing away tie at Cardiff City yesterday.

Rovers will head to Ninian Park on the weekend of January 8/9.

Rovers' last appearance in Cardiff was at the Millennium Stadium final for the Worthington Cup in 2002 and their last meeting with Cardiff at Ninian Park was in April, 1985.