MARK Hughes has called on his Blackburn Rovers players to prove that Wednesday night's crushing defeat to Aston Villa was just a blip.

With Newcastle United due at Ewood Park tomorrow, Hughes knows Rovers cannot afford to dwell on what happened against Villa if they are to keep the pressure on the teams above them in the table.

A combination of sloppy defending and poor decision-making by the match officials contributed to Rovers' heaviest home defeat in three seasons.

But although Hughes said the 4-0 scoreline was hardly a true reflection of his side's performance, he and his players must now draw a line under it and attempt to bounce back at Newcastle's expense.

"We're still scratching our heads wondering how we lost that game 4-0," reflected the Rovers boss, who is likely to freshen things up by making a couple of changes tomorrow.

"Circumstances obviously conspired against us but for the first 25 to 30 minutes, I thought we were excellent.

"We got the ball down and caused Villa problems. I think they had one strike at goal and that was about it.

"But we then switched off at a free kick, we didn't do our jobs properly, and they scored.

"We need to be a little bit better at set-plays than that and we must give ourselves a chance of winning games.

"The other night, we just made it too difficult for ourselves.

"But we have to dust ourselves down now and pick ourselves up, and be ready to go again at the weekend because it's another big game for us."