MARK Hughes last night celebrated leading Blackburn Rovers to their best season since the title-winning campaign of 1995 and then vowed we can do even better next year'.

With sixth spot and a place in Europe already in the bag, Rovers rounded off a remarkable campaign with a 2-0 victory over Manchester City at a joyous Ewood Park yesterday afternoon.

That result meant Rovers finished the season with 63 points their highest Premiership points total in 11 years.

And although Hughes admits his players have now got a hard act to follow, he firmly believes he can lead them on to even bigger and better things over the next 12 months.

The Rovers boss, who last week put pen to paper on a brand new three year contract, said: "Expectations will be higher next season.

"No one really expected us to finish where we actually did this time, but we placed those expectations on the players and we'll do the same again next year and more.

"We'll have more demands because of the European competition and we hope we have a decent run in that.

"That in itself will bring other problems, but if we can keep the guys fit and fresh, and bring other quality players in to supplement the good ones we already have, then we'd expect not hope to have as good a season next year, if not better."

It was carnival day at Fortress Ewood yesterday as Rovers fans celebrated an astonishing season of success, and the players ensured the party went with a swing by delivering yet another victory.

The key to Rovers' success this season has been their excellent home form and City became their 13th victim at Ewood in the Premiership thanks to goals from Zurab Khizanishvili and Shefki Kuqi.

"I said before the season started that we had to make Ewood a fortress," said Hughes.

"Over the last couple of seasons our home form hasn't been good enough, but this year we've completely turned that around.

"We've won 13 games at home, and 19 in total, and it's been a real achievement."

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