MARK Hughes must wish he'd never been to Chelsea.

And that's not just based on Saturday, when his Blackburn side suffered the club's first Premiership defeat at Stamford Bridge as they were humbled 4-0. The Blackburn boss could now be regretting the time he spent at Chelsea as a player because the legacy he left came back to haunt him.

John Terry's domineering captain's performance was a source of misery for Hughes's strikeforce as he displayed the type of imperious form that has established him as one of Europe's best defenders during Euro 2004 and this season's free-scoring Champions League campaign.

Hughes was even forced to wave the white flag and haul off his front two of Youri Djorkaeff and Paul Dickov after 53 minutes.

And Terry's fearless display, which cemented Blackburn's position as the Premiership side with the league's worst goal difference, typified the type of character Hughes helped instil in him when he was a youth player in the mid-1990s.

"As a young player coming through training against Mark Hughes, he used to terrorise me," revealed Terry in his column in the Chelsea programme.

"I always called him Mark, not Sparky or Hughesy, because he was such a legend and I was scared of him. He's got to be one of the best strikers of all time.

"I'd be a youngster training with the first team and he'd bully me, but it taught me so much good."

Terry barely gave Blackburn a sniff of goal all afternoon, their only shot on target coming when Barry Ferguson drove straight at Petr Cech when Rovers were already 3-0 down.

But Hughes is now only concerned with this own defence and, after looking comfortable for the bulk of the first half he saw the aftermath of Gudjohnsen's opening goal follow an all-too-familiar pattern.

"At the moment we're finding it very difficult to stop goals going in once we concede the initial one," said Hughes.

"It's a very disappointing day to say the least. For 35 minutes we did okay and didn't allow Chelsea to create a great deal in that initial period.

"At 1-0 we were still very much in the game but very, very quickly we conceded a second goal in a very similar manner.

"At 2-0 down it was always going to be very difficult to come back against a good Chelsea side today."

Hughes also admitted his concern at the amount his defence has conceded, with 22 in the goals against column comfortably the highest in the Premiership.

He added: "We've got things we need to work on because our goals against column tells a story.

"We need to be more resolute defensively and once we get that defensive base we can build performances and get results."