MORTEN Gamst Pedersen today insisted Blackburn Rovers are capable of mounting a charge for Europe in the wake of Saturday 4-1 demolition of high-flying Charlton Athletic.

Pedersen was among the scorers as Rovers romped to their biggest home victory since they thrashed Wolverhampton Wanderers 5-1 in August 2003.

Mark Hughes' side have now won five home games on the bounce and there's a growing feeling within the camp that a push for the top six is not beyond them this term.

"The ambition is to be in the top half of the table and, if we are lucky, maybe we can get into Europe," said Pedersen.

"There's not many points between getting into Europe or finishing in the second half of the table so if we continue to do the right stuff then we can do it.

"We did well against Charlton and we can beat anyone in this league on our day, but the challenge is to perform more consistently like that week in, week out, which is hard.

"But we seem to have made our home ground a castle now. If you want to do well it's important to win games at home and I think we are starting to show people that it's not going to be easy to come to Ewood Park and get a result."

Rovers made a flying start on Saturday, scoring after just two minutes courtesy of a brilliant strike from Brett Emerton.

Paul Dickov then made it 2-0 with a neatly placed header on 18 minutes, which was his third goal in as many home games.

Charlton briefly threatened a fightback when Bryan Hughes pulled a goal back before the break, but Rovers effortlessly slipped through the gears in the second half and further strikes from Pedersen and Craig Bellamy completed the rout.

It was the first time Rovers had scored four times in a Premiership game under Mark Hughes, and the victory was their third on the bounce at Ewood in the league - a feat the club has not achieved since April 2003.

Understandably, Hughes was delighted afterwards, although he stopped short of predicting a European charge.

"We'll get a lot of belief from this performance, as we did from the game against Chelsea," said Hughes.

"We certainly won't be involved in a relegation scrap. We are looking at bigger and better things so that's not an issue this season."

The only downside from Saturday's game was injuries to Michael Gray and Andy Todd, who both had to be substituted after picking up hamstring and ankle problems respectively.

"Andy went over on his ankle. He tried to continue but wasn't able to," said Hughes.

"As for Mickey, he pulled his hamstring. We hope it's not a bad one but if he's ever going to pull a hamstring then now is perhaps the best time to do it because we've got a break for the internationals so, hopefully, we can get him back for the Manchester City game."