Division One: Blackburn Rovers v West Bromwich Albion - Peter White's match preview

THERE'S not much point having a red-hot striker like curry-loving Lee Hughes if you are shipping goals in defence at the rate West Bromwich Albion did at Bramall Lane last Saturday.

After losing midfield ace Richard Sneekes to a red card, when they were trailing 1-0 to Sheffield United, Albion completely disintegrated, crashing 6-0 - their heaviest defeat for 24 years and the club's worst ever at this level.

So, in the circumstances, Hughes was hardly likely to have much chance to add to his current tally of nine goals, though Rovers will have to keep a close eye on him tomorrow as he has already scored in one of the three clashes between the clubs so far this season.

With Hughes completely overshadowed by the Sheffield scoring spree, the spotlight, instead, fell on 21-year-old Albion keeper Chris Adamson.

The youngster was understudy to Rovers' recent signing Alan Miller until it became clear the more experienced man was about to leave Albion.

And Adamson cannot have enjoyed coming under the cosh.

But Albion boss Brian Little has no concern about sending him straight back out to face Rovers tomorrow.

"I have no problem about playing Chris at Blackburn," said Little.

"He has responded very well in training this week.

"Even the best keepers in the world have had a few put past them in one match.

"It happens, it's all part of the game."

Little hopes it was a freak result at Bramall Lane. "There's no reason to panic, although we have lost a few more games than we would have hoped," he said.

"Most of the defeats have only been by a single goal and last Saturday just came out of the blue.

"If we had lost 1-0 it would still have been a bad result but I expect that, because we lost 6-0, there's going to be a large degree of criticism.

"But I have been in coaching for 20 years and I have had experiences like this before.

"I tend to find they tell you lots of things about lots of people around you.

"We'll dust ourselves down and try and be talking at the end of 90 minutes against Blackburn with a smile on our faces.

"In this business you live and die by your decisions and I take responsibility for the team losing 6-0."

Little has set his side a target of winning seven of their last 14 games and they will need players like Hughes to be firing if they are to achieve it.

But they will miss Sneekes, after his misdemeanour is set to cost him a three-match ban starting next Saturday.

"I feel I have let the club and supporters down," admitted the Dutchman.

"It's fair to say it was the worst day of my Albion career.

"It (the red card) came at such a vital stage of the game but we should not have lost so heavily, even down to 10 men.

"And it's going to take a lot for us to bounce back immediately. But we have to start pulling our fingers out."

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