Blackburn Rovers striker Craig Bellamy believes his team-mates can take plenty of positives from Saturday's performance at Stamford Bridge despite the scoreline.

Things looked grim for Rovers as Jose Mourinho's table-topping Blues raced into a 2-0 lead inside the opening 13 minutes courtesy of goals from Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard.

However, Bellamy then inspired a gritty fightback by scoring twice before the break to restore parity and, although Chelsea ultimately went on to seal the points through second half efforts from Lampard and Joe Cole, Rovers' Welsh international was still encouraged by the manner in which his team-mates made the Blues scrap for their victory.

"We responded well after going 2-0 down but we had to, really, otherwise we'd have been on the end of a good hiding," said Bellamy.

"We showed good character, we passed it around and frustrated them, and, with our play overall, we deserved to go in at half-time at 2-2.

"The second half was hard for us. Chelsea is an intimidating place and I think the referee got caught up in it and that made it a lot harder for us."

Riley came in for heavy criticism after he sent Hughes to the stand and booked five Blackburn players during the space of half an hour in the second half.