BLACKBURN boss Mark Hughes was left feeling blue after Chelsea's 'Roman' army stormed to another impressive victory at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

At one point, Rovers threatened to pull off an upset when they battled back from two goals down to go in level with the runaway league leaders at the break.

However, Chelsea then showed their championship mettle by stepping up a gear in the second half and goals from Frank Lampard and Joe Cole finally killed off Rovers' brave challenge.

To compound Hughes' misery, the Rovers boss was also sent to the stand by referee Mike Riley after he kicked a medical bag in frustration - a decision that left the Welshman stunned.

"I don't know if that had any impact on the eventual outcome of the game but it didn't make my job any easier," said Hughes of his 54th minute dismissal, at which point the game was still delicately balanced at 2-2.

"I'm still a little bit confused about why I was sent to the stand, or why the referee and his fourth official felt it was necessary to send me there.

"Basically, I wasn't too happy with a couple of decisions that went against us so I jumped up and shouted the referee's name to get his attention, but he ignored me so I kicked a bag.

"The fourth official, who I felt was a little bit pedantic all afternoon, then decided it was time for me to go and sit in the stand.

"Apparently, I ignored him three times.

"I'll wait to see exactly what he says in his report, in terms of why he felt the need to send me to the stand, then maybe we can look at it if something needs to be done."

Hughes must have feared the worst as his afternoon started in the worst possible manner.

Some slack marking from Rovers allowed Didier Drogba to open the scoring after just 10 minutes.

Three minutes later, Lampard then scored again from the penalty spot following a foul by Andy Todd on John Terry in the area and Rovers faced a mountain to climb.

However, inspired by the indomitable Craig Bellamy, Rovers then staged an exhilarating fight-back as the Welshman struck twice before the break to restore parity.

That rocked Stamford Bridge to the core, but Chelsea showed just why they have now gone 40 Premiership games without defeat by moving up another level to finally secure the points.

Nevertheless, there were plenty of positives for Hughes to take from his side's performance.

"I thought our play in the first half was excellent. I thought we dominated the game and had the better passages of play," said the Rovers boss.

"Obviously, we'd started badly, we fell behind to two early goals, we didn't defend a ball into the box, and a soft penalty, in our eyes, was given.

"At that point, you fear a tough day in the office but, fair play to our lads, they came straight back, they passed the ball well and made great angles, which caused them problems.

"I think in the first half Chelsea couldn't really work out how we were approaching the game and our general play was very good.

"We then got the reward by getting back on level terms, which we were pleased about.

"In the second half, we were very encouraged, we felt we were causing them problems, and we thought we might be able to get something out of the game.

"But when you are up against Chelsea, they have fantastic delivery and it's difficult to defend against.

"The ball in for their third goal was certainly a difficult one to defend and, in the end, it cost us the game.

"But we can take a lot of credit because, after going 2-0 down within the first 10 minutes or so, we bounced straight back and we'll take a positive from this game, even though we ultimately got beat."