MARK Hughes' future at Blackburn Rovers remains the subject of intense speculation after the Welshman stopped short of ruling himself out of the running for the vacant manager's job at Newcastle United last night.

The Rovers chief did insist he was happy at Ewood as he answered questions about his future in the aftermath of yesterday's dramatic last-gasp victory at Bolton.

But he appeared to leave the door open for a possible approach from the Magpies when he passed up the opportunity to distance himself altogether from the post at St James' Park.

At the time of going to print, Newcastle had not made contact with Rovers with a view to seeking permission to speak to Hughes.

However, after the Magpies failed to land their number one target, Harry Redknapp, over the weekend speculation is rife that the North East club could now switch their attention to Hughes instead.

Asked about the rumours, the Rovers boss responded: "I've got a job to do here.

"Speculation has surrounded me when other vacancies have appeared, but I'm still the Blackburn Rovers manager.

"I've got a good situation here and I'm very conscious of that.

"All I'm trying to do is do the job to the best of my ability, along with the rest of my staff, and that's all I can do.

"Speculation isn't something that I try to generate; I'm not in to self-promotion, it just happens as a consequence of being a professional football manager, and there's not a lot I can do about it."

When one reporter pointed out to Hughes that he could nip all the speculation in the bud by pledging his commitment to Rovers and stating he had no interest in the Newcastle job, he replied: "That's a hypothetical question and I don't answer hypothetical questions."

Another asked: If it's in your hands, will you still be the Blackburn manager at the end of the season?

Hughes replied: "It's not in my hands, is it? It's in my chairman's hands and thank God we won today.

"I've got a good club here, I'm proud to be Blackburn Rovers' manager. In football you can never say never..."