SAM Allardyce hailed his Blackburn Rovers side as 'outstanding' after the richly-deserved point at Manchester City on Saturday.

“We were buried out of sight last time we came here and since then they have bought even more expensive players than they had last season,” Allardyce said.

“The performance was outstanding from our point of view because it has brought us a result that, apart from ourselves in the dressing room, was not expected by anyone else in the world of football – certainly after the way they comfortably beat Liverpool in their first home game of the season.

“With us losing our last two games, even though performances were very good we put ourselves under a lot of pressure here today on the back of losing two on the trot to get a result.

“When we were faced with losing three games on the trot in the Premier League, it’s a massive result for us because it’s a long claw out of the bottom end of the table if you don’t get the points in the early stages of the season.

“Irrespective of what people say, it does start from the first two or three games.

"If you don’t get them, it’s a long way to try to claw your way out of it.

“It means you have to start going back to back wins, five or six games undefeated, and that’s always very difficult for teams like Blackburn to do that.”

"I am glad to say I have not lost my record of losing more than two Premier League games on the trot."