ROQUE Santa Cruz hopes to erase the memories of Saturday's horror-show at Wigan by firing Rovers into the semi-finals of the Carling Cup tomorrow night.

Despite scoring a hat-trick at the JJB Stadium, Santa Cruz still ended up on the losing side, as Mark Hughes' team crashed 5-3 to the Latics in a bizarre North West derby full of twists and turns.

Trailing 3-0 after 37 minutes, Rovers then fought back magnificently to draw level at the 3-3, courtesy of an expertly taken treble by their Paraguayan hitman.

However, all of Santa Cruz's excellent work then went to waste as Rovers' leaky defence was breached twice more during the closing stages, the spoils going instead to Wigan's own hat-trick hero, Marcus Bent.

Rovers have now lost three of their last four games in the league but, with Arsenal due at Ewood Park tomorrow for a Carling Cup quarter-final tie, Santa Cruz insists he and his team-mates must pick themselves up quickly or run the risk of seeing another route into Europe disappear.

The former Bayern Munich ace, who is Rovers' top-scorer now with nine goals in all competitions, said: "It is a huge game for everyone because we want to have the chance to win a cup, so the Carling Cup and the FA Cup are tournaments where we want to do our best.

"We must do anything we can to get to the final."

Santa Cruz became the first Premier League player to score a hat-trick but finish on the losing side, since Dwight Yorke earned the same unwanted distinction in Aston Villa's 4-3 defeat to Newcastle in 1996.

"It was very disappointing to lose, especially after scoring the three goals," said the Paraguayan.

"We made too many mistakes and didn't give ourselves the chance to really put ourselves on the front foot.

"Even when we are not playing well, we have to be strong to make sure we get a result."

Bitterly disappointed by his side's latest set-back, Hughes conceded Rovers ultimately paid the price for some shocking defending in the first half.

"In fairness, it wasn't just the back four, it was the midfield areas and all over the field where we weren't taking defensive responsibility, and if you don't do that teams in the Premier League, irrespective of their position, will cause you a problem and score goals against you," lamented the Rovers boss.

"That happened in the first half. In the second half we were much better, in terms of getting to the ball first and anticipating things dropping, and that's the reason we got back on level terms.

"But we defended poorly in the first half, and we were messed about by their frontmen.

"They're a handful but we expect to do better than that."

Those thoughts were also echoed by midfielder Robbie Savage, who conceded recent performances have not been up to scratch.

"We are going through a rough patch and we're just playing halves at the minute," said Savage.

"We only played for a half against West Ham, and we did the same again here, so we've got to start playing for 90 minutes.

"I thought in the first half, Wigan out-Blackburned us.

"They were first to the ball, they hassled us and tackled us, and we found ourselves 3-0 down, having also missed a penalty.

"But we then showed what spirit we've got by getting it back to 3-3, only to then shoot ourselves in the foot again."