MARK Hughes paid tribute to his defenders and the team as a whole after the match against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
Despite losing the match 2-0, the team as a whole worked tirelessly throughout and deserved more than they came out with against Arsene Wenger's side.
The Rovers boss felt that the defensive pairing of Zurab Khizanishvili and Andre Ooijer put in an impressive display to keep a lively Arsenal attack quiet for long periods.
"I thought they were excellent,"said Hughes after the game. "I thought for long periods they kept Adebayor very very quiet, he is on a fantastic run of form at the moment and he didn't really have a great deal of influence on the game.
"I thought we coped very well with his threat up to the last few minutes when we lost Andre with a hamstring and we had to re jig a few things. Obviously we lost our shape somewhat so he was able to get in at the death.
"I thought defensively we were excellent, Brett Emerton and Stevie Warnock played exceptionally well alongside the centre halves. There were some big performances and I'm really pleased for the guys that came in and were able to put in a performance for us."
