BLACKBURN boss Graeme Souness breathed a sigh of relief as Rovers eased the pressure at the bottom of the Premiership with a vital win at Fulham last night.

Jonathan Stead's second half winner tipped the balance in Rovers' favour at the end of a remarkable seven goal thriller and now Souness has called on his players to take the confidence from that performance into Saturday's vital six-pointer with Leicester at Ewood, where another win for Rovers would edge them a step closer to safety.

"We will see how important this win is at the end of the season," said Souness.

"We've got a great chance to move away a bit now against Leicester at the weekend and we really have to try to nick that one.

"I hope we can move on from here and that this will give us confidence.

"I hope it will get us to safety as soon as possible. I thought we would have a cracking season but now it's all about getting into the safety zone and flopping over the finish line as quickly as possible."

Rovers made the perfect start when Andy Cole fired them ahead in the 23rd minute but Fulham then hit back courtesy of two goals from Collins John to lead 2-1 at half-time.

However, a determined second half fight-back saw Rovers surge back in front only for Fulham to equalised again through Luis Boa Morte.

But, with 15 minutes remaining, Stead then pounced to score a priceless winner which restored the three point gap between Rovers and the bottom three.

"I'm not relieved, I'm delighted," said Souness. "I thought we played very well.

"We battled really hard in the first half and played some good football in the second half and I think we deserved to win the game in the end.

"I don't think anyone could say we were lucky because if you examine the facts we got a great first goal, they got an equaliser which should never have counted because Vratty Gresko's shirt was being pulled off his back, and the same guy then put the ball in the net to make it 1-1.

"Their second goal wasn't a good goal from our point of view but the players to their credit came in 2-1 down at half time, rolled their sleeves up and went out for the second half and really had a go and we got our reward in the end."

Souness singled out Stead and the inspirational Garry Flitcroft for special praise after Rovers secured their sixth away win of the season.

"Garry Flitcroft made two fantastic tackles right in front of their dug out and he set the tempo for the remainder of that half," said Souness.

"Some of the Fulham players thought 'I'm not going to go near him' and some of our players grew in confidence from the commitment Garry showed.

"As for Jon, he's still only 20-years-old and anything we get from him this season is strictly a bonus. We are very pleased he is doing well but we can't rely on him.

"We've got vastly experienced players we rely on to do that but I'm sure Jon will be a big player for this club."