‘7-0 loss made us improve’

BRILLIANT Blackburn Rovers are building up a full head of steam in their unlikely promotion push.

Tony Mowbray’s side lost star striker Adam Armstrong, who bagged an impressive 29 goals last season, to Premier League Southampton in the summer.

And winger Harvey Elliott returned to Liverpool after his stunning loan spell came to an end.

But Chile ace Ben Brereton Diaz (below) has picked up the scoring slack with a phenomenal 19 league strikes in 23 games.

Rovers were 12 points off Fulham after being hammered 7-0 at home by the tabletoppers at the start of November.

But the Lancashire outfit are just three points off the summit in third now after five straight wins without conceding – and six victories in seven unbeaten outings since that dismal drubbing.

“We lost our main goalscorer in Armstrong, we lost our creative force in Elliott, it was looking like it could be a difficult season ahead,” admitted Mowbray.

“But the team have stuck together, the performance levels from the team have been really strong over the last few weeks.”

Defender Darragh Lenihan has been at the heart of Rovers’ turnaround at the back which has seen them conceding just twice in seven games. And the skipper said: “That Fulham game made us all realise we had to get so much better defensively.

“We’ve shown a lot of character to come back from that. The standards have been set and we have to keep this form going. We’re only in December, so we won’t be getting carried away.”

Stuttering Hull are looking towards the other end of the table and a potential relegation back to League One.

The troubled Tigers have a four-point cushion above the dreaded drop zone.

But their fine six-game unbeaten streak came to an untimely end at Nottingham Forest last time out.

Boss Grant Mccann stressed: “The performance levels of these players is getting better and better.

“I’ve told the boys if they keep performing, we will keep moving up this league. I have no doubt about that. How far we can go, who knows? We just keep looking forward to the next challenge.”