GRAEME Souness admitted his team were "well and truly bashed up" by Liverpool yesterday.

The Blackburn Rovers boss saw his side collapse to a 4-0 defeat in an Anfield horror show that sucked them further into a fight for Premiership survival.

Souness' plan to keep it tight at the back and absorb the home side's pressure was blown to bits in the opening 24 minutes when Blackburn fell three goals behind.

Michael Owen scored twice against Rovers for the second time in the Premiership this season, with an Andy Todd own goal in between, before Emile Heskey's late strike compounded Souness' misery.

And the former Liverpool player and manager admitted that his side's position near the bottom of the table forced him into thinking about goal difference after their early collapse.

Indeed, if Leicester beat Leeds by more than three goals tonight, they will overtake Rovers and leave them one place and one point above the drop zone.

"No complaints today, we were properly bashed up," said Souness. "We've played the top teams this year and none of them have done that to us.

"We played second fiddle throughout. They've been a wee bit nervous at home this year so our game plan was to come here, make it as tight as possible and hopefully frustrate them.

"You have to do that when you go to all the big clubs, whether it's Arsenal, Man United, Chelsea or Liverpool. They're the ones that are under pressure to perform at home

"But the game was over when they got the second and when they got the third, after that it was a case of us thinking about goal difference because of the predicament we're in."