TIM Sherwood, seeing the possibility of a Champions' League place for Blackburn Rovers, has set his team-mates a tough target - a repeat of their first-half of the season points tally.

The Ewood skipper, reflecting on an outstanding haul of 39 points at the halfway stage of the Premiership campaign, refuses to give up on the chase of champions and four-point leaders Manchester United.

But Sherwood knows that United will have to crack up at some stage if anyone else is going to get a glimpse of their coveted crown.

And he is also realistic enough to accept that finishing second to qualify for a crack at the Champions' League would still be a remarkable achievement after the trauma of last season.

"At the beginning of the year we couldn't realistically have seen ourselves in this position," he said.

"But we have got there by being well organised and getting results at the right time.

"The lads up front have played really well, we have been solid and Tim Flowers has had some great games.

"The Champions' League would be brilliant, winning the title would be exceptional.

"It would be a great feat if we could get into the Champions' League and, really, that's all we have got our eyes on at the moment.

"It's been a dream start and it's not only a start, we are well into the season. If we can pick up the same amount of points in the second half we would have a chance of winning the title. "But Manchester United have to lose some games and, at the moment, they don't look like they are going to lose any.

"They have an aura about them. People think that because they have won it so many times, why should they falter now.

"But you never know. You never write it off. There's still a lot of work to do as we found out when we had a big lead.

"They don't have a big lead but they have enough of a lead and they are one of the best teams in Europe.

"We have picked up points from good teams as well. We were outplayed on the day at Old Trafford but we still have to play them at home, may be we can take a few points off them.

"But we have to rely on other teams to do the same and they will be saying that about us."

Meanwhile, manager Roy Hodgson paid tribute to his team for the way they followed up the win at Arsenal by crushing West Ham. "Often, when you have had a good away result you don't find the same ferocity in your pressing and work rate. It's human nature," he said.

"You work hard when the knife is at your throat, you tend to relax when it's not there. No-one had a knife at our throat but we put it there ourselves.

"The second goal was a gift. Having said that, we did enough in the 90 minutes to score three goals.

"Tactically, I thought we did quite well."

Hodgson also had special praise for his talented teenager Damien Duff.

"He's a good player," said the manager. "I don't bandy terms about like good, very good and great.

"The more you work with people the more you realise their strengths and weaknesses but I am prepared to say that at such an early age the lad is a good player and we hope he can go on to become even better.

"He must be delighted with his afternoon's work. His two goals were a bonus, without them I would still have been happy. He did give the ball away three times, which is unusual for him. But we'll put a stop to that," smiled Hodgson.

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