ROVERS boss Graeme Souness is hoping he has found the solid defence that can help his side mount a challenge for a European place.

"For the Southampton game that was the first time I'd written down a back four and thought 'we've got a back four of men today'," he explained. "It was the same at Chelsea.

"All season we've played with a young back four but in the last two games we've had some experience. At this level, you've got to have that.

"If you get past them, then you've got to try to score against someone who I regard as the best goalkeeper in the country."

Substitute Dwight Yorke and David Dunn fired Rovers into a 2-0 lead in the last five minutes, before Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink cracked in an injury-time goal.

But it was the men at the back that Souness was eager to praise for their part in Rovers' first away win since October.

"Brad once again showed he is a top goalkeeper. He made saves and made some shots look very easy," said Souness. "He's the best - it's quite simple.

"And there were people throwing themselves in front of shots and getting blocks in. That's good defending in my book and we did that on occasions.

"I thought Henning Berg and Craig Short did well, and special mention must go to left back Vratislav Gresko. It was his third game here in England, he's not played a lot of football this year and he looks to be a really good defender. And Lucas Neill is a good performer at this level."

Souness admitted his side had ridden their luck at Stamford Bridge, after Chelsea pummelled the Rovers goalmouth, but he made no apologies for that.

"Obviously Chelsea will feel hard done to a bit but we've all been in games like that when maybe you think you should have got something from it and the other team's enjoyed the luck," he said.

"We tried to get it down and play a bit but Chelsea are a good team and you don't expect to come here and get the majority of the possession.

"They had us on the back foot at times but we defended well. Then they stepped up a gear in the second half and maybe the longer the game was going on we were thinking, we could keep a clean sheet and get a draw out of this. But of course with the players we've got in the team we're always capable of scoring."