ROBBIE Savage today rounded on his critics by insisting he's being victimised for his controversial style.

The Blackburn midfielder felt he was deliberately targeted before and during Saturday's stormy encounter with Bolton Wanderers, which ended in a disappointing stalemate.

After being hammered in midweek for going down clutching his head in the Carling Cup clash with Manchester United, Savage was then criticised again in the national press on the morning of the Bolton game, with Wanderers midfielder Stelios accusing the Welshman of trying to hurt opponents.

However, the 31-year-old has angrily hit back, claiming people have got him all wrong.

"In the week, I was on the receiving end of a tackle from Alan Smith and over the next three days in the national Press I was hung, drawn and quartered.

"I was accused of acting and trying to claim that I'd been butted, but no-one touched me on the head. It's just when you're in pain, your natural reaction is to hold your head.

"People got involved who had nothing to do with it and then on Saturday morning I picked up the paper again to find a Bolton player saying I go out and deliberately try to smash peoples' legs.

"It's amazing the perception some people have of me. In all my club career, I've never been sent off and I've never gone over the top of the ball once.

"I go and try to win my tackles and given the amount of tackles I make in a game, I'm bound to mis-time one or two.

"I got booked on Wednesday night for showing aggression to the referee when I was the one on the floor.

"I know I'm not going to change the national press's perception of me, but I feel I've just got to try and set the record straight because I'm an easy target for them.

"I've just got to keep playing the way I'm and hopefully I'll shut them up, just like Blackburn have turned the bully boy tag around."

As well as the war of words in the build-up to Saturday's clash, Savage also reckoned Bolton deliberately tried to target him on the pitch.

Both Hidetoshi Nakata and Khalilou Fadiga got booked for first half tackles on the Welshman and Nakata eventually got sent off for another late challenge on David Bentley.

"It was incredible," said Savage.

"Everyone saw it and they wanted me to bite, but I think I showed great restraint not to react.

"I'm not going to go out there and shirk challenges or change the way I play just because teams have targeted me.

"If I'd made those tackles then I would have got booked, it's as simple as that."

Rovers boss Mark Hughes also agreed with Savage's assessment of Wanderers' approach.

"Certain members of our side will be thrown into the mix and viewed as the villain of the piece," said the Rovers boss.

"But Robbie showed a lot of discipline and restraint.

"I thought he was targeted in the first half for fouls to try to get a reaction."

As for the game itself, Hughes added: "It was a little bit frustrating for us as we wanted to have some momentum in our play.

"We are here to play football and that's what we try to do. At times it was difficult.

"We just need to be a bit more patient and show a bit more guile in certain areas."

Rovers' Under 18s beat Stoke City 3-2 thanks to a brace from Joe Garner and another goal from the in-form Raffaele De Vita.