ROVERS skipper Garry Flitcroft is planning to give Graeme Souness a timely boost by declaring himself fit for Sunday's crunch clash with Fulham at Ewood.

Flitcroft missed the midweek trip to Turkey after injurying his back ahead of last week's victory at Portsmouth.

But he was hoping to return to training today with the aim of proving his fitness in time to be included in Souness's squad to face the Cottagers.

"It's improving every day," said Flitcroft.

"My back just went into spasms last Thursday and I haven't been able to do much since.

"But I tried to do a bit yesterday and hopefully I can join in with the rest of the lads today so fingers crossed I should be okay for Sunday."

Flitcroft's midfield grit was certainly missed in Ankara on Wednesday night as Rovers crashed to a 3-1 defeat in their UEFA Cup first round, first leg tie with Genclerbirligi.

However, the tough-tackling midfielder believes Rovers are more than capable of turning the situation around in the second leg at Ewood on October 15 after watching the first game on television.

"I can still see us going through," said the 30-year-old.

"We are still in with a chance - the tie's not dead just yet.

"I watched the game on telly and they were saying that Genclerbirligi are a very attack minded team so they won't come here to defend and maybe we can take advantage of that.

"All the players are desperate to do well in Europe. We want to stay in this competition for as long as possible because it's good going to other countries playing against different teams.

"That's what you're in the game for."

In the meantime, Rovers must put aside all thoughts of Europe and switch their attention back to domestic matters and the visit of Chris Coleman's Fulham.

After two straight defeats on their last two outings at Ewood, a win on Sunday would do wonders for morale.

"We've got to start tightening up at the back," warned Flitcroft.

"We said at the start of last season that we were conceding too many goals and the same is happening again.

"We are always going to score goals and Andy Cole and Matt Jansen are both in great form at the moment.

"But we can't afford to keep gifting goals at the other end.

"We should have more points on the board than we do. We should have beaten Manchester City, for instance, at our place.

"Generally speaking, we are doing okay but we are not quite firing on all cylinders yet.

"Maybe that's because this is a new team and we just need games to get used to each other.

"Once they get used to each other then we should be able to start ensuring we get the points that we need to climb the table."