MARK Hughes has urged his players to tighten up defensively as Blackburn Rovers go in search of their first away win of the season at Fulham tomorrow.

Rovers have leaked more goals than any other team in the Premiership this season and their defensive failings were exposed once again in the first half of last weekend's game against Birmingham.

That left Rovers trailing 3-1 at half-time and it needed a spirited second half fightback to rescue a point from the fire.

However, Hughes admits it's asking too much to keep expecting his players to claw back deficits, as they have done in each of the last four games.

"We've done well in the last few games but we need to start converting those draws into wins," said the Rovers boss.

"We feel we're very, very close and if we can get a little bit better defensively then there's no doubt in anyone's mind that we can start picking up three points.

"Since I've been at the club, we've worked hard on getting better defensively.

"It hasn't helped that we've lost players through injury.

"We lost Amoruso with an Achilles injury and Craig Short has been in and out of the team so we haven't had a settled back four.

"But in the last three games, we've been able to keep reasonably settled and we've shown decent signs of improving.

"Obviously, Sunday's performance against Birmingham wasn't as good as the previous two games but we'll continue to work at it and we will get better.

"At the end of the day, it's not all about the defence, the midfielders and attackers have a responsibility to provide protection further up the field as well."