TONY Parkes admitted the pressure was back on Blackburn Rovers' erratic away form after last night's 1-1 draw with Norwich City at Ewood.

And they could hardly face a bigger test than Saturday's trip to Worthington Cup runners-up Tranmere, followed by Tuesday's game at Portman Road against an Ipswich side aiming for automatic promotion.

But the Blackburn Rovers boss believes that last night's vastly-improved performance could be a sign of brighter days ahead.

"We need to win every game which is not always possible," said Parkes, who has steered Rovers to the fringe of the play-off zone.

"And it just makes it a bit tougher now.

"We've dropped two points at home which probably means we have to go away and win a game which we wouldn't have had to do if we had won tonight.

"But that's how it happens, isn't it?

"You play poorly and win and play decent and only get a point.

"That's football, but we can only blame ourselves we didn't win tonight.

"We started well until they scored and then there was a lot of apprehension went round, once we went one down. It was a 'here we go again' type of thing after Saturday." The performance was more important than the result in some respects for Rovers and Parkes feels the display will count for more.

"You have to play well, if you don't it's short term. You can get away with it in an odd game but if you don't play well over a period of time you are not going to pick up the points that you will need," said the manager.

"So you do have to play well, there's no doubt about that.

"I certainly wouldn't say I would rather us play like we did on Saturday and get three points. That's easy to say but you really have to play well if you are going to win games and put a few points together.

"Playing poorly is only short-term, one game possibly."

Despite failing to beat Norwich, Parkes was delighted by the response of the supporters after the controversial crowd reaction to Saturday's game.

"The fans were all right. They supported us very well tonight, they were very good," he said.

"But I suppose they had a few things to shout and cheer about, compared to Saturday."

Even though Rovers dominated the game, Parkes confessed he could not see a way Rovers were going to score.

"It's a good job he put five minutes (stoppage time) up, I think we scored after three of those," he said.

"I never thought it was going to come.

"We dominated the game without actually creating the chances that we should have had for our possession.

"They defended well, they blocked a lot of crosses that we put in but we didn't create that many clear-cut chances. "And they probably scored from the first attack they had in the first half.

"It was a mistake, we didn't defend it very well and then you are chasing it again.

"That always gives the opposition a chance to defend it which they did. They defended it very well."

Alan Fettis looks set to York City in a deal which could bring Rovers as much as £50,000.

As we revealed last week, York asked about the Northern Ireland international keeper who would have been available on a free transfer at the end of the season.

They have now agreed a deal which will give Rovers £1,000 for each of his first 50 appearances for the Bootham Crescent club.

Rovers Reserves play Aston Villa in a re-arranged game at Ewood tonight (kick-off 7pm).

The Rovers squad is: Miller, Richardson, Murphy, Dunning, Short, Taylor, Baldacchino, Dunn, Thomas, Burgess, Forsyth, Hawe, Bingham, Hamilton, O'Brien, Howson.

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