BLACKBURN boss Mark Hughes hit back at claims that the recent cutting comments of Sir Alex Ferguson had something to do with his side's toothless display at West Brom.

Ferguson accused Rovers of making 'foul after foul after foul' after his Manchester United team slipped to a 4-3 defeat at Ewood last Wednesday.

However, there was no sign of a combative attitude on Saturday as Rovers slumped to a 2-0 defeat at The Hawthorns following first half goals from Kevin Campbell and Jonathan Greening.

In fact, it was not until injury time that referee Chris Foy issued the first bookings of the game to Rovers substitute Sergio Peter and Albion's Ronnie Wallwork after the pair became involved in a shoving match.

When asked whether Ferguson's remarks had contributed to a lacklustre Rovers display, Hughes countered: "We are not that type of team anyway.

"It was a performance that was frustrating because we know we can do a lot better than we did. It's not a case of anything that has gone on since the game on Wednesday.

"We just weren't at the level we needed to be. We didn't start well, we conceded two poor goals from our point of view, and then we never really looked like getting back into it after that."

Ironically, Rovers had gone into the game as the form team in the Premiership, having won five and drawn one of their previous six matches, including that magnificent victory over United.

But their hopes of extending that run suffered an early setback when Campbell fired Albion into a sixth minute lead.

And Greening then, effectively, sealed the points for Albion when he grabbed their second goal 13 minutes before half-time.

After that, Rovers rarely looked like staging a fightback on a day when they created few scoring opportunities.

"We had a lot of play at the start of the second half but, obviously, West Brom are fighting for their lives and they had something to protect so that's what they did, and they did it very well," said Hughes.

"We found it very difficult to create any clear-cut chances in the second half, even though we had the vast majority of the play."

Hughes was also asked if he felt his players were guilty of taking Albion too lightly, given they had performed so much better against United three days previously, but the Rovers boss denied that was the case.

He added: "From the outside looking in, that possibly looks the case.

"But you bang the drum and hope that the players have the right mentality going into a game against a side that is fighting for its life.

"Today, we just started sloppily and gave away two really poor goals from our point of view.

"Defensively, we pride ourselves on being really strong and resolute but, in that initial period, we weren't that and, as a consequence, we went behind.

"From that point onwards, it was always going to be difficult to turn things around."